Over 15,000 displaced Pandits eligible to cast vote in Phase-II today

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Sept 24: Over 15,000 displaced Kashmiri Pandits are eligible to cast their vote in three districts of Central Kashmir in the second phase of polling tomorrow spread over 15 Assembly segments at 24 specially created polling booths in Jammu, Udhampur and NCR Delhi.
Giving details, Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner, Dr Arvind Karwani told Excelsior that 24 Special polling stations have been created in Jammu, Udhampur and NCR Delhi. Out of them, 19 polling stations have been established in Jammu district, one in Udhampur district and four in NCR Delhi. Each polling station will have 15 polling booths for all 15 constituencies spreading over three districts of Central Kashmir, he added.

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Among the 15,400 displaced Pandit voters, 14,500 are registered in Jammu district while 900 are registered at Udhampur and Delhi. The Habakadal constituency in Central Kashmir district of Srinagar which has a multi corned contest has highest number of 6000 displaced Pandit voters, RRC said.
Besides, BJP, NC , PDP, Awami National Conference and Apni Party some Independent candidates are also in fray from this constituency.
The RRC said among the three districts of Central Kashmir where polling will be held tomorrow included Srinagar, Ganderbal and Budgam.
The authorities have made elaborate arrangements at all 24 polling stations. The staff has been deployed on all polling stations in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi, the RRC said.
Meanwhile, the polling staff deployed on election duty said that they are not being provided rooms in schools for sleeping during the night and are asked to take shelter in tents outside the school buildings. This way, their lives are put to grave risk due to presence of mosquitoes in tents outside which can expose them to diseases like dengue or chikengunya.
The polling staff has other complaints also. They said that the procedure for depositing of EVMs after the culmination of polling in the evening is also haphazard as no proper queue system is adopted in depositing EVMs. The staff feels harassed as there is no queue management, they added.
For depositing the EVMs in the evening, the staff jostles with each other and this looks totally indecent and odd to them. They demanded that a proper procedure be adopted for the same and queue management be adopted so that the polling staff can deposit EVMs on their turn.