Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 8: The Election Commission of India today appointed 108 Observers for five phase Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir including 16 Police Observers, who have been appointed for the first time in the State to oversee and monitor free, fair and smooth polling in the State. All the officers appointed Observers for J&K were top IAS and IPS officers of different States.
The Commission has posted 86 General Observers for 87 Assembly constituencies, all IAS officers, 16 Police Observers and six Awareness Observers. All Police Observers were IPS officers while Awareness Observers are IAS officers.
Official sources told the Excelsior that one General Observer has been appointed for every Assembly segment excepting Kargil where only one Observer has been appointed for two Assembly constituencies of Kargil and Zanskar. On an average, each Police Observer has been given the charge of five to six constituencies while the Awareness Observers have been designated district wise.
“The General Observers will take charge of the Assembly constituencies assigned to them from last day of filing of nomination papers and stay till counting process is completed on December 23 while Police and Awareness Observers will take charge of their constituencies or districts from last date of nomination and stay till day of polling,” sources said.
They added that the Election Commission has empowered its Observers including General and Police with visiting all areas of their constituencies, keeping surveillance on public meetings, activities of the candidates and political parties and ensure that elections were conducted in free and fair manner and there was no kind of coercion among the voters especially in the rural areas.
“The General Observers have been given very specific instructions on their task to ensure that the elections were conducted in free and fair manner,” sources said, adding that the Police Observers apart from looking after law and order situation in the districts and Assembly segments assigned to them will also take up security related issues of candidates, political parties and complaints made by the local people.
Dr Matta Ravi Kiran, an IPS officer of Haryana cadre has been appointed Police Observer for six Assembly constituencies of Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts that will go to polls in first phase on November 25 while BK Singh of Maharashtra cadre will be the Police Observer for three segments of Reasi district, Neil Kumar Subramanyam for Poonch district, HM Jaya Ram for Srinagar district, M Chandra Shekhar for Jammu district, Mahaeshwar Dayal for Rajouri and Shakeel Ahmad for Kathua.
The General Observers for Assembly segments going to polls in first phase are Rajiv Prashar for Gurez, Akshay Kumar Pani for Bandipore, Baldeo Purushartha for Sonawari, Shivamurthy GN (Kangan), Surwade RS (Ganderbal), R Vineel Krishna (Nobra), Adesh Titamare (Leh), Amit Talwar (Kargil and Zanskar), Minlianthang Vaiphel (Kishtwar), Beer Singh Thakur (Inderwal), Dev Raj Dev (Doda), Bhupinder Singh Bhalla (Bhaderwah), Sandeep Kumar (Ramban) and Shankaranarayanan (Banihal).
For second phase of polling, Dinesh Kumar has been designated as Observer for Gulabgarh, Dr Akhilesh Kumar Mishra for Reasi, Puneet Kumar Goel for Gool-Arnas, Dr K Gopal for Udhampur, Mohite MV for Chenani, Suresh Kumar Sinha (Ramnagar), Santosh Kumar Mishra (Surankote), Hari Shankar Upadhyay (Mendhar) and Swami Deelip Veepakshappa (Poonch Haveli).
Six Awareness Observers designated so far by the Election Commission included YK Baweja for Ganderbal and Bandipora districts, Vasudha Gupta for Leh and Kargil districts, Kripa Shankar Yadev for Udhampur, Reasi and Kulgam districts, Dr Murali Mohan for Baramulla and Pulwama districts, S Subramanian for Anantnag and Shopian districts, K Shyamaprasad for Srinagar and Ranjanadev Srmah for Jammu and Rajouri districts.
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