Voters greeted with flowers, tea at super model booth

At super model booth, a team of volunteers showered flowers on voters at entrance and a red carpet was laid for their welcome. There was arrangement of clean drinking water and tea along with a waiting room for the elderly and pregnant women.

Also special volunteers handed over appreciation certificates to first-time voters. A helpdesk with polling officials dressed in ‘May I Help You’ jackets were waiting at the entrance. The interiors were done in blue and white theme with balloons and slogans.  Model booths presented a disappointing picture as they were no different from normal booths in constituency. While administration claimed that they will have facilities like queue managers, drinking water, ramps for handicapped and shed to avoid sunlight etc, the reality was a complete contrast.

At Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar which was a model booth, there were no queue managers. Also voters were standing under the sun waiting for their turn. A S Dhaliwal, presiding officer said, “We have drinking water and some medicines. Other than that, there is nothing special.”

Similarly, there were no volunteers at Kundan Vidya Mandir which was also listed as a model booth. In KVM, youth were seen enquire about certificates but there was no one to guide them.

On other hand some booths like Lodhi Club which were not declared model booth had all luxuries such as air conditioned halls, water dispenser, huge waiting rooms and help desk for voters.