83-year-old blind votes to get disability certificate

An octogenarian blind at Zalpora of Sumbal sub-division in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district voted in the panchayat elections on Tuesday “to get disability certificate”.

Mohammad Ibrahim Bafanda, claiming to be 83-years-old, said he voted to get a disability certificate for himself as he has lost vision in both of his eyes around 8 years ago.

   

“For last eight years I have been running from pillar to post to get a disability certificate but till date nobody has helped me. Even the successive representatives of my area have failed me in this regard,” he rued.

He said that he voted for a candidate, who knows “under what circumstances I have been living for past eight years”. 

“He (the candidate) is my neighbour and with this hope I came out to vote for him. I was helped by a polling agent to cast my vote because I cannot see,” Ibrahim said.

Many voters in Rakh-i-Asham and Rakh-i-Sultanpora said they came to vote in favour of a young candidate for the post of Sarpanch who they said has been working tirelessly to get the problems being faced by the inhabitants of the area resolved.

“Our village was ignored by all the previous representatives. It is because of Shabir Ahmad, who is contesting as Sarpanch candidate from Rakhi-i-Asham panchayat halqa, that our village was brought under Panchayat,” said a young voter, Altaf Ahmad.

The voters said they voted for the development of the village. 

The village is a Shia-dominated area having around 300 households with more than 800 registered voters. The village witnessed brisk polling as voters including women and elderly queued up to cast their votes since early morning. 

Meanwhile, Nowgam and Ganstan blocks of Sumbal, which went to polls in the 2nd phase of ongoing panchayat polls today, recorded a voter turnout of 66.88 percent. A total number of 8922 votes were cast out of 13542 registered voters in two blocks of Nowgam and Ganastan. 

In Ganastan a total number of 2560 votes were polled against 5835 registered voters, recording a total voter turnout of 43.87 percent.

In Nowgam block, a total number of 6362 votes were cast against 7707 registered voters, recording a turnout of 82.55 percent.

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