Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Apr 30: About six percent migrants cast their vote for Srinagar -Budgam Lok Sabha seat on 16 polling booths in Jammu and Union capital today.
Out of 36,015 migrant votes in Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency, 2478 exercised their franchise on 16 specially established polling booths in Jammu and Union Capital New Delhi today.
Out of them 2,437 migrants exercised their franchise at 13 polling booths in Jammu while 31 migrants cast their votes at one polling booth at Udhampur.
In two polling booths at New Delhi established for Kashmiri migrants 10 votes were cast out of 55 votes. According to ARO Migrants New Delhi Mr Fotedar 3 votes were cast at one polling booth while seven were cast at another polling booth out of 55 migrant votes registered in Union Capital.
ARO, Udhampur while giving details said 31 votes were polled out of 72 voters registered at one polling booth at Udhampur.
According to ARO Migrants Jammu Sachin Dev Singh out of 2437 votes polled by migrants at Jammu, 151 were polled at Women College Gandhi Nagar, 22 votes were polled at Government Engineering College Canal, Jammu, 317 at Director School Education, Muthi, 270 at Director Economics and Statistics, Janipur, 16 votes were polled at Migrant School Purkhoo, 172 were polled at Agri Complex Talab Tillo, 371 at Migrant School Roopnagar, 90 by Middle School, Nagrota, 325 at G H S S, Jagti A, 278 at GHSS, Jagti B, 156 at Panchayat Ghar Barnai, 181 at Agri University Complex, Udhaywala and 88 were polled at polling booth at JK Board of School Education, Rehari.
It may be recalled that out of 36,015 migrant voters 1888 M Forms comprising of 6015 votes were received by the Election authorities. Out of which 209 M Forms were rejected and 1679 comprising of 5098 voters were found valid.
However, only 2478 migrants turned up for casting their vote during polling day today.
In view of the low percentage of polling in Srinagar Lok Sabha seat the 36,000 migrant voters could have become a deciding factor and tilting the balance had all of them filled up their M Forms and shown willingness to take part in the electoral process.
The main reason according to migrants for not filling up of the M Forms and taking part in democratic process was the cumbersome procedure adopted by the Election Commission of India in this regard.
M L Thusoo advocate and president Kashmiri Hindu Conference (KHC) said that the ECI has failed in last 25 years to simplify the procedure for migrants voting saying a voter can’t make many rounds to election office to get M Forms then fill up them with details and get it signed from a gazetted officer for casting his vote. In this process the migrants have to waste a lot of time which is impossible for them, he added.
The procedure can be simplified by providing voter I -Cards to all migrants and making their voter lists available at polling booths where the name can be tallied with voter list for casting the vote, said Nana Ji Ex-Sarpanch and a social activist.
Follow our WhatsApp channel