Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 11: Dropping enough hints about holding timely Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission of India has sought detailed proposal from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jammu and Kashmir about the phasing of the polls by strictly considering the climatic conditions of the Assembly constituencies within next three days.
Moreover, Chief Electoral Officer today issued notification designating Government servants as Returning Officers for all the 87 Assembly segments of the State.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that soon on the arrival of its team from Jammu and Kashmir after holding deliberations with the local authorities and political parties and taking stock of the situation prevailing in the State particularly in the aftermath of devastating floods, the Election Commission of India told the Chief Electoral Officer of J&K Umang Narula to submit detailed proposal about phasing of the elections.
The Chief Electoral Officer has been directed to conduct constituency-wise phasing strictly keeping in mind the climatic conditions prevailing in these constituency in the month of December, sources informed, adding in this way the Election Commission has dropped enough hints about holding of timely Assembly elections in the State.
“The Commission has made it clear that phasing should be conducted in such a manner that all those Assembly constituencies, whose even some portion gets snowbound in first week of December are kept in the very first phase”, sources further said while disclosing that all these details have been sought before Tuesday (October 14) in order to facilitate the Election Commission of India to take decision in its meeting scheduled to be held on October 20.
It is pertinent to mention here that a team led by Deputy Election Commissioner, Vinod Zutshi had toured the State between October 7 and 9 and held detailed deliberations with stakeholders particularly District Election Officers (Deputy Commissioners) whose opinion about holding elections matters much for their being fully versed with the climatic conditions of the Assembly constituencies in their respective districts in the month of December.
In response to a question, sources said that all the four constituencies Leh, Kargil, Nubra, Zanskar of Ladakh region, Bani of Kathua district, Gool-Gulabgarh of Ramban district, Inderwal of Kishtwar district, Bhaderwah of Doda district and Bandipora etc which usually become snowbound early December would be covered in first phase of polling.
As very limited time is left for the furnishing of the details sought by the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer has started seeking constituency wise details from the District Election Officers (Deputy Commissioners) and they have been asked to ensure the same by Monday afternoon, sources said.
Meanwhile, on the directions of the Election Commission of India Chief Electoral Officer has issued notification appointing Returning Officers for all the 87 Assembly constituencies of the State.
“In exercise of the power conferred in Section 32 of the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957 and in supersession of its Notification No.434-J&K-LA/2002 dated 16th August, 2002, the Election Commission of India designates Government Officers as the Returning Officers for the Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir”, reads the notification with which list of the 87 officers designated as Returning Officers has been appended with.
This notification has been issued as per the approval of the Election Commission of India conveyed vide order dated September 24, 2014.
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