Shimla: A total of 1,844 visually challenged persons will exercise their franchise in the November 9 assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Electoral Officer Pushpendra Rajput said here on Tuesday.
There are 50,25,941 voters in the state. Mandi has the highest number of 671 visually challenged registered voters, and Lahaul and Spiti district the minimum 21 electors.
Kangra district has 82 visually challenged registered voters, Hamirpur 85, Shimla 60, Kullu 319, Una 51, Bilaspur 187, Chamba 62, Solan 183, Sirmour 37 and Kinnaur district 86 electors.
He said the Election Commission had introduced Braille signage features on electronic voting machines to facilitate these persons to cast votes. All Presiding Officers have been provided with Braille ballot paper sheets to assist Braille-literate voters.
Elections to the 68-member Himachal assembly will be held on November 9, while counting of ballots will take place on December 18 along with those cast in the Gujarat elections.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Tuesday said that cash worth over Rs10million and nearly three kg of gold has been seized from Himachal Pradesh, which goes to the polls on November 9.
The cash amount seized was till November 5. The police seized Rs4.02million on November 4, and again Rs5.62million on November 5. On the other hand, the Income Tax Department seized Rs6.16million on November 5.
While, over 2.98kg of gold in the form of jewellery was also seized, the EC said.
The state police and the state Excise Department has also seized 301,000 litres of liquor worth Rs51.9m from around the state.
The poll panel said that drugs worth Rs128.6 million were also seized.
Votes for the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be cast on November 9 and the counting will take place on December 18.
