Special awareness camps to be held for Kashmiri migrant voters in J&K

Jammu, Mar 31 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir administration will organise special awareness camps for Kashmiri migrants at different places in Jammu and Udhampur districts from April 3 to 14 to ensure their participation in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territory will be held in the first five phases on April 19 (Udhampur) and 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), 13 (Srinagar) and 20 (Baramulla). The counting of votes will be held on June 4.

On March 23, the Election Commission announced a comprehensive scheme for Kashmiri migrants to exercise their franchise, continuing the past practice of voting through postal ballots and special polling stations in Jammu, Udhampur and New Delhi.

The scheme is meant for all those electors of Baramulla, Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituencies in Kashmir who had migrated out of the valley and are temporarily residing in various places outside.

The Election Commission had issued two notifications categorising the Kashmiri migrants as the ‘specified’ and ‘notified’ electors.

Of the 26 special polling stations, 21 are being set up in Jammu, one in Udhampur and four in Delhi for the Kashmiri migrant voters who are residing at various relief camps and who opt to cast their votes in person through electronic voting machines.

They have to fill up ‘Form M’ for voting in person at these special polling stations.

Any migrant elector, other than those who opted to vote in person, can avail the option to vote through postal ballots by filling up Form 12C, an official spokesman had said.

According to a public notice issued on Sunday, the special awareness camps are being organised by the Relief and Rehabilitation department, regarding the scheme of voting for the migrants besides on the spot attestation of Form M’ and ‘Form 12C’.

Nodal officers were announced for all the awareness camps which will start from migrant camp Nagrota on April 3 and continue till April 7.

It will be followed by similar camps at Jagti, Purkhoo, Shiv Mandir Sarwal from April 4 to 7, migrant camp Muthi and Sharika Mata Mandir M H Chowk Udhampur from April 8 to 10, the notice said, adding another camp will be held at Sanjeewani Sharda Kendra Bohri from April 10 to 13 and Samaj Sudhar Jang Ghar, Durga Nagar on April 13 and 14.

The notice said the designated nodal officers shall supervise the camps and submit daily progress reports to the Election Naib Tehsildar, Relief Organisation, Jammu.