Police to facilitate, encourage voters: IGP
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, May 12: Srinagar Parliamentary constituency is all set to go for vote tomorrow amid unprecedented security arrangements.
A total of 24 candidates are in the fray and among them the prominent ones are National Conference Candidate Aga Syed Rohulla Mehdi, People’s Democratic Party youth leader Waheed-Ur-Rehman Parra, and Apni Party’s Ashraf Mir who are contesting from the Srinagar Parliamentary seat.
The seat is dominated by the National Conference party, which has won 10 out of the 13 Lok Sabha elections. The only national party to ever win the Lok Sabha elections in Srinagar is Congress, which emerged victorious in the 1996 elections.
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The election staff including Presiding Officers have been stationed in every Polling Station. In total, more than 8,500 polling staff, including reserves, have been deployed on duty. They reported to the main polling centres where they were provided polling material and they were then sent to polling stations.
The voting will take place from 7.00 am to 6.00 pm and before that, there will be a mock poll in the Polling Stations in the presence of the polling agents. Also, the voting will continue even after 6.00 pm, if the voters’ queue is still there in the Polling Station premises to exercise their right to vote.
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There will be 20 polling booths managed by women (also called as Pink Polling Stations), 18 polling booths manned by specially-abled persons, and 17 by youths.
Security forces were deployed in full strength across the constituency and Srinagar streets were looking deserted as majority of the people headed home early as all the public transport except smart city buses have been deployed for poll duty.
Inspector General of Kashmir V K Bhirdi said that security measures at Polling Stations and other locations are firmly established. “Various Quick Response Teams (QRTs) and other deployments will remain active, serving as integral components of the overall security setup for the day. Inter-district checkpoints will also be set up to ensure a safe and secure environment,” he said.
“Additionally, paramilitary forces assigned to us for enhanced security will be deployed according to the guidelines provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Moreover, the Jammu and Kashmir Police constabulary will be present to maintain queue discipline and order at the Polling Stations,” he added.
“I want to emphasize that all necessary arrangements have been made to facilitate voters, encouraging them to come out in large numbers and cast their votes,” he said.
A total of 17,47,810 lakh voters including 8,75,938 male and 8,71,808 female voters besides 64 third gender electorates are eligible to exercise their franchise at 2,135 Polling Stations across the five districts of Srinagar, Pulwama, Budgam, Ganderbal and Shopian.
There are around 11682 Persons with Disability and 705 persons above the age of 100 years who will also be exercising their franchise.
All polling stations in phase 4 will have CCTV cameras for live webcasting to the control rooms established at the District and CEO offices. Few polling stations fall in communication shadow areas. Suitable alternate arrangements by providing Satellite Phones, Wireless sets, and Special Runners have been put in place around a few polling stations that fall in communication shadow areas.
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