Kathmandu, March 6
Rajaram Sardar (38), a Nepali Congress leader from Morang constituency number 4, needs wheelchair to move around. But at the venue for the NC’s 13th general convention, there was no wheelchair, nor was any help available for Sardar, who came all the way from Morang to cast his vote.
So, he had to struggle quite a lot to cast his vote. The ordeal that he suffered due to lack of helping hands and lack of adequate infrastructure on the venue has made him sad.
It took candidate for the post of NC general secretary, Arjun Narsingh KC, around one hour to cast his vote. One can easily guess how long will it take for people like Sardar to cast their votes.
Call it the height of insensitivity towards people with special needs. The Congress party has not bothered to arrange a separate place where people with special needs can vote. Not that alone, the party has not allotted seats for people with special needs. It has not even arranged a separate line for people with special needs.
This time, at least, people like Sardar have no option but to cast vote for those, who, fairly speaking, do not represent them.
Sardar, though, has no complaints with regard to infrastructure and services available at the hotel where he is staying.
Sensing that the road will be pretty crowdy, I rented a van to reach the general convention inauguration venue and the voting venue, only to face an ordeal while voting, he said.
Sardar told Onlinekhabar: Casting vote was pretty difficult as the table on which the ballot box was virtually unreachable. The country’s largest, oldest and democratic party did not make special arrangements for us. This has made me sad.
Sardar reached City Hall for casting his vote at 10.27 am. His turn came about 1.5 hours later. After exercising his right, Sardar demanded special arrangements for people like him in the next general convention, including reservation for people with special needs.
