Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 18: The Election Commission has appointed six Returning Officers and 87 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) while over 35,000 Government employees of different ranks were being engaged for duty for six seats of Parliament for which the election process has already been set into motion with notification of Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat.
The Election Commission has set up highest number of 2271 polling stations for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat while lowest number of 531 polling stations have been set up in Ladakh Parliamentary constituency.
Official sources told the Excelsior that Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Umang Narula has designated Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, AK Sahu as Returning Officer for Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat, Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Jatinder Singh for Udhampur-Doda, Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, Farooq Ahmed Shah for Srinagar-Budgam constituency, Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, Saugat Biswas for Anantnag-Pulwama, Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, Farooq Ahmed Lone for Baramulla-Kupwara and Deputy Commissioner, Leh, Simrandeep Singh for Ladakh seat.
Sources said apart from six Returning Officers for an equal number of Lok Sabha constituencies, the Election office has appointed 87 AROs in six segments to assist the ROs. The AROs were in the rank of Additional District Development Commissioners (ADDCs), Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs), Assistant Commissioners (ACs) and Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs).
“The AROs would assist the ROs in the election duty. The ROs would assign election duty to the AROs,” sources said.
Apart from the ROs and AROs, sources said, at least 35,000 Government employees would be engaged for election duty in all six Lok Sabha seats, which included the reserve staff. Number of the staff could go up as per requirement of the Deputy Commissioners but tentatively, there would be about 35,000 Government officials on election duty, sources said.
The Election Commission has set up 9633 polling stations for Lok Sabha seats. Each polling station would have three Government officials including one Presiding Officer and two Polling Officers. However, some of the polling stations located in far off areas could have one extra staffer. Some of the staff members would also be required for shifting the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to polling stations and then to `strong rooms’. Rest of the staff would be reserve.
The highest number of 2271 polling stations have been set up in Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat, which would go to polling in first phase of Jammu and Kashmir on April 10. While Jammu district alone accounted for 1153 polling stations, Rajouri has 499, Poonch 373 and Samba 246.
Lowest number of 531 polling stations have been set up in Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, which would have polling in fifth and final phase of Jammu and Kashmir on May 7. Leh district has 274 and Kargil district 257 polling stations.
Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency has second highest number of 2051 polling stations. Kathua district accounted for 602 polling stations, Udhampur 389, Reasi 373, Ramban 205, Doda 257 and Kishtwar 225. Udhampur seat would go to polls on April 17.
Srinagar-Budgam Lok Sabha seat has 1546 polling stations. Srinagar district has 804 polling stations, Budgam 540 and Ganderbal 202. This seat would have polling on April 30.
Baramulla-Kupwara Parliamentary constituency has 1616 polling stations. While Baramulla accounted for 822, Kupwara district has 531 and Bandipora district 263 polling stations. Baramulla would go to polls on May 7.
Anantnag-Pulwama Lok Sabha seat has 1618 polling stations. Anantnag has 625, Kulgam 389, Pulwama 408 and Shopian 196 polling stations.
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