Out of 52,000 migrant voters, majority of names missing
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 12: Despite doing away with cumbersome process of M Forms after the long struggle of Kashmiri migrants, the authorities have failed to enrol maximum migrant voters of Srinagar Parliamentary constituency evoking a serious resentment among the displaced people from the Valley.
As per official records, out of 52,000, 25,000 migrant voters in Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, about 16000 voters have been registered to cast their vote tomorrow at 23 special polling booths in Jammu and Udhampur in J&K besides additional four polling booths in Delhi.
Out of 23 polling booths for Kashmiri migrants in Jammu and Udhampur, two Polling Stations one at Udheywala, Bohri and another at Chinore have been named as Auxiliary Polling Stations having over 1800 votes, officials said, adding the Polling Station at Chinore has 2027 votes while the polling booth of Udheywala has 1850 votes.
Official sources said besides one polling booth at Camp Middle School at Jagti township has been made Model polling booth. The other 20 Polling Stations are in different migrant camps and non camp localities. The migrants can cast the vote at the Polling Stations of their choice for which they have already given the consent.
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Besides, one special Polling Station has been set up at Udhampur for 377 voters, sources added.
AERO Migrants Dr Riyaz Ahmed said that all arrangements are in place and voting will begin at 7am on all Polling Stations. He admitted there is a resentment among migrants as all bonafide voters are not enlisted in voter lists. But in future Department will take care of it, he added.
As per AERO, Migrants Delhi, Arvind Kumar, four Polling Stations were established in Delhi for 491 migrant voters. He said out of these four special polling booths one Polling Station has been established at JK House 5, Prathvi Raj Road Delhi, second at Shalimar Bagh Delhi, third at Dilshad Garden Delhi and fourth at Najafgarh, NCR, Delhi.
Meanwhile, migrants alleged that hurdles were deliberately created in enrolling the names in voter lists by officials. Sachin Dhar, a migrant from Srinagar said that the concerned BLO denied to get him and other members of his family enrolled in voter list for Srinagar constituency few days back on the pretext that the time for enrolment has lapsed. He said later he approached Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner and AERO Migrants and with his hard efforts the name was included today but still “I am not sure whether it will be in the list tomorrow or not”.
Critising the authorities, BJP spokesperson and ex MLC, Ajay Bharti said the role of concerned employees engaged for enrolling the migrants names in the voter lists was totally negative. He said M Forms were taken from migrants but not uploaded. The Relief Organisation did not evolve a proper mechanism in this regard, he added.
The organisation was supposed to upload the voter lists on website and publish notices in news papers which it failed to do. Zone wise mapping was not done neither slips were issued to voters by BLOs.
H L Bhat, a socio political activist said Government machinery is totally responsible for it. He said after hard efforts the Forms were got cancelled but still problem persisted due to negative role of officials. “This is a deliberate sabotage as voters names were not included despite people approached concerned authorities”, he added.
Bhat demanded that every migrant who has a voter card must be allowed to vote tomorrow and the authorities should ensure that he is not denied the right to vote.
Senior leader Apni Party M K Yogi accused authorities of betrayal saying the names were not deliberately enrolled by the officials. He said 450 voters in Bantalab area where he visited today along with other party activists said their names have not been included in the list. He said 24 members of two families complained that their names have not been included in the list though they had completed all formalities.
He said authorities assured to enroll left out names and they will be in voter lists by tomorrow morning and we hope they will fulfil the promise.
Vinod Pandit and Vimarsh Jyotshi, socio political activists also said that there was lack of cooperation from authorities side and demanded that this should not be repeated in Anantnag and Baramulla constituencies as well as in the Assembly polls.
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