29 polling booths set up in Jammu, Delhi
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, May 17: Over 18,000 migrant voters out of 26000 registered Kashmiri Pandit voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise across the country in Baramulla -Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency in North Kashmir going to polls in fifth phase along with 49 Lok Sabha seats of six States and two Union Territories on May 20.
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Out of 26,000 migrant voters in Baramulla -Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency of North Kashmir, as per official records, 18,000 voters have been updated by Election authorities to cast their vote on May 20 in Jammu region.
Official sources said the authorities this time took extraordinary steps in ensuring that more and more migrant voters should be updated to cast their vote in view of the resentment shown by the displaced people last time as majority of names of migrant voters were missing in the electoral rolls.
Overcoming its past shortcomings, the authorities have bettered the facilities for the migrant voters from across the country, sources said.
They said this time instead of two, three Auxiliary Polling Stations have been established for migrant voters in Jammu. Out of them, two Auxiliary Polling Stations have been set up at Jagti township, while one is located at Udheywala Bohri.
Out of two Auxiliary Polling booths in Jagti township, one will be housed in community hall Jagti while another will be in Camp Middle School Jagti. The Auxiliary Polling booth at Udheywala will be in Agriculture University complex.
Sources said the number of voters for these three auxiliary Polling Stations will exceed 1500 voters while the Udheywala Polling booth alone has 2103 voters.
Sources said there is lot of enthusiasm among the migrant voters to cast the vote as the number of voters enlisted in Baramulla-Kupwara constituency is considerably higher than that of Srinagar Parliamentary constituency which went to polls on May 13.
It may be recalled that the constituency will see a multi -cornered contest as 32 candidates are in the fray. The prominent among them included former Chief Minister and NC working president Omar Abdullah, former Minister and People’s Conference chief Sajjad Gani Lone, former MLA and Independent candidate, Engineer Rashid and People’s Democratic Party candidate and ex MP (RS) Fayaz Mir. It may be recalled that Engineer Rashid is contesting elections from Tihar Jail.
The migrant voters can be a key factor in the constituency which has over 17.32 lakh voters including 8.59 lakh women voters as the candidates are sending personalised messages to them seeking their support. Moreover, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah has also in a TV interview termed Kashmiri Pandits as an important factor and hence the community is particular to cast their vote this time, said Chand Ji Pandita a socio-political activist.
He said Shah not only appreciated KPs participation in fourth phase but also hoped that they will do it in other two phases, he added.
Besides, the Election Commission has also made some improvements this time and the voter lists have been put on website five days prior to elections which paved the today for migrants to get their names enrolled in the lists. They also ensured that the shortcomings found in last phase will not be repeated, said Surinder Dhar another migrant from the constituency.
The Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Migrants has assigned the duties to DC Relief and ACRs Relief for overcoming all shortcomings. The Election authorities have ensured deployment of sufficient staff for smooth conduct of elections at all migrant polling booths, Besides, BLOs have been deployed and Help Desk has been established for Poling Stations. The EC has put additional staff in place in next two phases.
The EC has also ensured that discrepancies like May 13 shall not be repeated and officials have been directed that the ECI guidelines should be strictly adhered to. Moreover a separate postal ballot team has been constituted and the contact number of concerned officers including ZOs, Camp Commandants and BLOs have been circulated.
“A total of 26,000 Kashmiri migrants are registered as voters from the constituency. Of these, 12,926 are male voters and 13,074 are female voters,” Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), Migrants, Riaz Ahmed said.
Twenty nine Polling Stations have been set up for the migrants, of which 24 are in Jammu, four in Delhi and one in Udhampur, he said.
The Election Commission has arranged a pick-and-drop facility for the Kashmiri migrant voters. It will be available from 6 am to 6 pm, he said.
“The transport facility will be available where there is more concentration of migrant voters on polling day,” he said.
There are two ways for the migrant voters to cast their votes. “First, they can do so by filling up an M-form, for which prior information is required to be given and they can vote in the special Polling Station set up for them,” Ahmed said.
The second option is voting through postal ballots for which they have to fill up Form-12C.
The Lok Sabha seat spread over 18 Assembly constituencies in four districts of Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipora and Budgam, has over 17.32 lakh voters who will vote across 2,103 Polling Stations.
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