A red carpet welcome awaits residents when they go to cast their votes in the city on Wednesday.
At least 86 model polling booths have been set up in Patna, where a variety of special facilities would be at the disposal of the voters.
St Xavier's High School, Patna Women's College, Kendriya Vidyalaya (Kankerbagh), Shastri Nagar Girls' High School, Shastri Nagar Boys' High School, St Anne's School (Lohia Nagar) would be some of the prominent model polling booths.
On offer would be around 50 e-rickshaws near Patna Women's College and Shastri Nagar to ferry senior citizens, women and the differently abled to model polling booths. Takers for the service won't have to spend a single penny, courtesy the administration.
"The idea is to give voters a pleasant experience at the model polling booths. It is not possible to develop all the 4,347 booths as model polling stations. So we have selected 86 booths to develop those into model polling ones," said Wakil Singh, nazarat deputy collector, one of the officials looking after the model polling booths.
If any voter forgets to bring his/her voter slip, the facilitation desk at the model polling booth would come to his/her rescue.
If a voter comes to the model booths by mistake, personnel posted there would guide the voter concerned to his/her booth.
Voters would be provided drinking water in disposable glasses. Toilets, sheds for sitting, ramps and wheelchairs for the differently abled would also be available apart from the first-aid facilities. A few volunteers would help out voters.
Residents were happy to know about the facilities. "It's a good initiative but I think some of those, such as drinking water and shed facilities, should be available in all other booths too," said Nidhi Srivastava, who will be casting her vote at a model polling booth.
"The idea of involving e-rickshaws to ferry senior citizens and the differently abled to model polling booths and back home is good. Such initiatives would definitely help push up the voting percentage," said Prabha Sinha, a resident.
