An elderly couple leaves the premises of Sacred Heart Convent School after casting their votes. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Ranchi/Jamshedpur, Feb. 15: The Jharkhand High Court?s order to the government to provide wooden ramps in the poll booths for the physically-handicapped was ?implemented? today in bits and pieces ? and for all the wrong use.

A random check saw no ramps in most of the booths in the Singhbhum districts, while Ranchi administration provided ramps in 125 out of the 208 booths.

In Ranchi, the ramps were seen being used as platforms for the police and paramilitary forces to rest their tired backs. ?This wooden thing does not belong to the police. It might belong to the CID or some other agency, though I am not sure,? a cop told The Telegraph at the Zilla Parishad polling station. The ramp was kept under a tree and four CRPF personnel made good use of it ? by sitting on the plank. ?They do not provide us chairs. You expect us to stand for 12 hours,? the group leader said.

The presiding officer at the station was the most worried. He had no idea what to do with the ramp and if he was responsible for its ?safe return?. ?I am supposed to return all unused materials. This ramp weighs several kilos and it is impossible for me to carry it on my back,? he said.Jamshedpur West, that had no ramps, however made up with a special arrangement ? for the blind voter. The constituency along with Patna in Bihar and Gurgaon in Haryana has been selected by the ECI to experiment with EVMs having Braille.

?I never thought this day will become a reality,? said Bhaskar Rao, a 48-year-old blind man, after casting his vote for the first time, at booth number 126 in Zhanda Singh Madhya Vidyalay in Mango. Another blind voter, Shanta Rao, said: ?This has given us the right that every citizen has in a democracy and of which we were deprived for 50 years after Independence. I wish the facility is available in every constituency next election.?