Calcutta, April 24: Nudged by the Supreme Court, the Election Commission has woken up to enable the physically handicapped to exercise their right to vote in the 14th general elections.

In an intimation sent to chief electoral officer Basudeb Banerjee on Friday, the poll panel has instructed that ramps must be installed for the handicapped at polling stations in accordance with the apex court directive.

With about a fortnight to go before polling day (May 10), Banerjee hopes the facility can be put up at least in urban areas like Calcutta and Howrah, apart from Asansol, Durgapur and Siliguri. There are 50,000 polling stations and 39,000 polling premises in the state. Each polling premise contains one or more polling stations.

Wooden ramps will be put up on most polling premises, but Banerjee has directed officials to instal permanent cement ramps in public places that are converted into polling booths.

“We have asked the district magistrates to see that this is done in urban areas of other districts according to the order,” Banerjee said.

There are about 900 polling premises in Calcutta and 700 in Howrah. “Semi-permanent wooden ramps may have to be stored somewhere as they would be required for elections every time… however, all the details have not yet been worked out,” he said.

“Otherwise, if any voter informs my office or the returning officers that he requires facilities for handicapped voters and names the polling station, stretchers will be arranged,” Banerjee added. “The order was sent to us on Friday and I have already asked district magistrates to make arrangements.”

Banerjee’s department is now calculating the number of ramps that will be needed. “Unfortunately, there is no data available on the number of handicapped voters. We have information on the voters’ sex and whether they have photo-identity cards and so on. It is difficult to calculate the number of physically-challenged persons per polling booth,” he said.