ADR launches J&K Election Watch

Excelsior Correspondent

RTI activists talking to reporters at Jammu on Friday.
RTI activists talking to reporters at Jammu on Friday.

Jammu, Mar 7 :  Association for Democratic Reforms, (ADR) the National  non-political organization that spearheads the movement for Improving and strengthening  the electoral reforms in the country, has appointed two prominent RTI activists from Jammu and Kashmir as its state coordinators .
Sd. Balvinder Singh (Jammu), RTI activist and convener, Sangarsh RTI Movement and Dr. Shiekh Ghulam Rasool (Kashmir ) Chairman, JK RTI Movement has been appointed as   State coordinators.  While addressing the press conference here at Jammus, Sd.  Balvinder Singh and Dr. Shiekh Rasool informed the media persons about the role of the organization and apprised that  as ‘National Election Watch’ a national campaign is being launched  by the ADR which is aimed to improve governance and strengthen democracy by continuous work in the area of Electoral and Political Reforms.
Balvinder Singh informed that State version of “National Election Watch” is also launched here in the State as “J & K Election Watch” and the objective of launching this campaign is to educate the citizens to bring election reform in the state, to put a check on  Corruption and criminalization in the political process, Empowerment of the electorate through greater dissemination of information relating to the candidates and the parties. The activists  also told that the focus of their campaign  would also be  to work to  for a better and informed choice for the voters, to work for bringing  greater accountability of Political Parties and to concentrate working to bring  inner-party democracy and transparency in party-functioning.
They also informed that  in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections “J & K Election Watch” would disseminate information related to all the contesting candidate in public domain like detail of educational qualification, criminal cases pending against any candidate, wealth and property statements of the contesting candidates. “Anyone whosoever would like to receive any information about a contesting candidate can have the same through our Website, www.myneta.info, or call at our  toll free no 1800110440, or type MYNETA space then type <constituency name> and send SMS to 56070 or to 09246556070.” At present this service is available to all the citizens of the country except the State of Jammu and Kashmir, but soon this services shall be made available for the citizens of our State also, they added.
Both the coordinators stated that very soon they will announce the executive body of “Jammu and Kashmir Election Watch”, which shall include Retd. IAS and IPS officers, Academicians and Journalists from all the regions of the State.
Others who were present during the press conference include renowned RTI activists Raman Sharma, Deepak Sharma, Adv Diwakar Sharma, Harasis Singh, members Sangarsh RTI Movement & “J&K Election Watch”.