Laws relating to conduct of elections being reformed

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 21: Ahead of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the laws relating to conduct of elections are being reformed by way of incorporating provisions of the Central Act to the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.
Tabling a bill in this regard in the Legislative Assembly today, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Mir Saifullah said that representation of the People Act, 1951 (Central Act) and Rules have been amended from time to time to streamline the conduct of elections for the Parliament and for the State Legislatures.
However, this Central Act doesn’t apply to Jammu and Kashmir so far as the conduct of elections to the State Legislature is concerned, he said, adding the amendments carried out in the Central Act and Rules have not been incorporated in Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.
“As per Election Department of the State, the Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers are facing difficulties for conduct of elections due to non-incorporation of these provisions in the State Act”, he said, adding “even the Election Commission of India has forwarded these amendments to the Election Department of the State with advice to consider such amendments in J&K Act’.
The Law Minister said that the amendment bill is aimed at incorporating the amendments made in the Central law particularly the provisions relating to appointment of Observers, priority for candidates of recognized political parties in the ballot papers, prohibition of public meetings on the day of poll, free supply of copies of electoral rolls to recognized political parties, prohibition on sale of liquor on the polling day, protection to the candidates from furnishing information not required under the Act, allocation of equitable sharing of time on cable network television and other electronic media, exclusion of expenditure incurred by leaders of political parties on account of travel from election expenses on the candidate, restrictions on publication of exit polls, prohibition on carrying of arms near a poll station, grant of paid holiday to employees on the date of poll etc.
“The amendment is aimed at streamlining and reforming the law relating to conduct of elections to the State Legislature”, the Minister said.
Minister for Urban Development, Nawang Rigjin Jora introduced Jammu and Kashmir Civic Laws Special Provisions Bill aimed at making certain temporary provisions for the local areas of Jammu, Katra and Srinagar.
The Master Plans for Srinagar 2021, Jammu 2021 and Katra were notified vide different SROs which provide for review and revision every five years to account for such modifications and corrections that emerge based on ground realities, the Minister informed the House, adding “the first review of the Master Plans has already commenced and is expected to lead to the necessary modifications in the existing guidelines for matters such as land use, notification of new commercial and industrial areas along with ground coverage, floor area ratio changes etc”.
“Besides this, the norms, policies and guidelines may also be needed to be appropriately modified to ensure their smooth implementation”, the Minister said, adding “the revised Master Plans would cover the whole of the newly notified local areas”.
“To complete the ongoing tasks relating to the revision of the Master Plan also enabling its application to the development of all the areas in the notified local areas of Jammu, Srinagar and Katra, a period of one year is required as such it is imperative to have a law for a period up to March 31, 2015 or till revised Master Plan is put in place”, the Minister said.
Following enactment of Act, all the notices issued by any local authority for initiating action against unauthorized constructions or Master Plan violations in respect of areas to which this Act applies will be deemed to have been suspended till March 31, 2015 or until a policy is formulated by the Government, whichever is earlier, the Minister said, adding “if any local authority intends to take any punitive action against any person in respect of buildings or structures that have come up prior to the coming into force of this Act for contravening any provisions of the J&K Development Act, 1970, the J&K Municipal Act, 2000, J&K Municipal Corporation Act, 2000 and J&K Control of Building Operations Act, 1988, prior permission of Administrative Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department or an officer authorized by him shall be obtained before taking any such action”.
Stating that violations of Master Plans cannot be solved by sealing, demolition and forcible action alone, Minister said that Government will constitute a high power committee of experts including eminent bureaucrats, planners and citizens to go into the depth of the reasons for the unauthorized constructions suggesting remedial measures including devising mechanisms for the regulation of building activity in these cities.
The committee will also suggest the fundamental principles for regularization or otherwise of the unauthorized constructions and the penal action for the regularization besides the institutional structure for the process of regularization.
The terms of reference of the committee will be to make an assessment about the magnitude of the problem of unauthorized constructions and misuse of premises; assess various types of violations and put them in broad categories in terms of the nature and extent of these violations; to identify the underlying causes leading to these violations; to recommend policy guidelines and development control norms for regulating construction activities in the respective local areas and to recommend measures to prevent recurrence of such violations in future including the structure and accountability of the enforcement machinery.

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