The Madhya Pradesh chapter of the Election Commission of India has decided to deploy women officers at polling booths so as to facilitate identification of Burqa-clad women voters. The commission has also decided to publish in Urdu the voters list of two districts of the state – Bhopal and Burhanpur –considering the high number of Urdu speaking voters in the area.
“We have identified 175 polling stations in the district where there are chances of having a large number of burqa-clad voters. In these booths, even the booth-level officers will be women,” stated Ashutosh Awasthi, the district collector of Burhanpur. In Indore as well, which has a large number of Muslim voters, officials have decided to depute women officers in all such polling booths where there are chances of getting Burqa-clad voters.