How stairs cost Maharashtra a vote

May be this single vote the state lost on Wednesday, thanks to poor facilities for the elderly and physically-challenged at a polling booth in the city will make a difference where it matters. 83-year-old Rosalind Desylva, who had gone to Bandra National College polling centre to cast her vote, went back disappointed as there were no voting machines on the ground floor. She couldn't take the stairs to the first floor because of her weak knee.

"I underwent a knee-replacement surgery a month ago. So it was impossible for me to climb the stairs. It was very disappointing that I couldn't contribute despite taking all the trouble to go there," Desylva said. "My husband, who died a year ago, was a staunch believer in the democratic process of voting. He always used to urge me to vote," she said.

Desylva's daughter Cassandra Fernandes was equally upset. "We had to leave for Pune early in the morning, so we took my mom to the centre so that we could cast our votes early and leave," said the 57-year-old, a flight services manager with Air India.

"We asked mom to wait inside the car and tried to find out if we could get help to take her to the first floor to cast her vote. But there was no help coming. They wanted to know if my mom could walk using the walker, to which I said yes. But when they asked me if she could climb the stairs using the walker, I said it was not possible because of the recent operation she had undergone."

That wasn't the end of their ordeal either. The cops on the road asked Desylva, who was waiting in the car, to move ahead. "I told them I was waiting for my daughter to take me, but they wouldn't pay heed."

She said the last time she had created a ruckus demanding better facilities for senior citizens. "Looks like that hasn't helped. Why can't they treat senior citizens better? Why can't they allot a classroom on the ground floor for the elderly. An elderly couple, who came to vote before us, also had to go back without voting because of the stairs," the Khar resident said.

Local activist Aftab Siddique said: "It's sad that the election commission doesn't care about these citizens. Khar residents were willing to provide their cars for ferrying senior citizens to polling booths, but the commission didn't allow them to do that. There are so many BMC schools which could have been used as centres."

Those who came to vote, especially senior citizens, at St Anne's School in Pali Hill, had a tough time due to the steep approach road leading to the voting centre. There too, the ballot boxes were on the first floor.