Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 24: From the height of 23,000 feet above the sea level to the plains of Bihar and Bareilly, they ensured full participation in this battle. The way they optimally made use of their weapon a history of its own kind has been created as in the past battles they unfortunately could not contribute much.
To ensure that all these soldiers are timely delivered their special weapon, the heads of their respective units deputed special envoys to the frozen heights of Siachen Glacier and to the plains of different parts of the country and the outcome of this initiative is most encouraging.
This fight called—“Battle of Ballots” concluded yesterday following declaration of winners to the 12th Legislative Assembly and the men in olive green are the troops of Ladakh Scouts belonging to the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.
During previous Battle of Ballots—Lok Sabha elections, these residents of Ladakh region could not make use of democratic right of casting votes because of varied factors. Only 1904 of around 4650 Ladakh Scouts troops could cast votes through postal ballots and shockingly 1039 votes were rejected due to procedural mistakes committed by them in filing the declaration forms.
As per the statistics of various Returning Officers of Leh and Kargil districts, the rejection rate of votes fell from 62% in Lok Sabha elections 2014 to a meager 10% in the recently concluded Assembly elections. Moreover, as against only 38% postal ballots received in the Ladakh Parliamentary Constituency during the Lok-Sabha elections, a massive 95% Postal-Ballots were received by the twin districts of Leh and Kargil in the recent elections thereby leading to an increase of 60%.
In the Lok-Sabha elections, only 1904 Service Postal ballots were received by the Returning Officer of Ladakh Parliamentary Seat whereas this number jumped to about 4650 in the current elections. Moreover, rejection of votes due to procedural mistakes committed by the soldiers has been reduced to just about 450 in the current elections as against 1039 in Lok Sabha elections. The total number of valid/accepted votes in Lok Sabha was only 865 as against 4200 in the current elections.
It is pertinent to mention here that Ladakh Scouts have five regiments. While one unit has been deployed in the world’s highest battle field-Siachen Glacier, three units have been stationed in different parts of Ladakh region and one unit in Chandigarh. Large number of troops are in Bihar, Bareilly and Mhow for training and other purposes.
As majority of these troops were being deprived of their right to cast votes, the District Election Officer (DEO), Leh, Simrandeep Singh decided to make use of Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign of Election Commission of India to ensure full participation of service voters of Indian Army in the Assembly elections.
Accordingly, he discussed the issue with the Commanding Officers of all the units of the Ladakh Scouts and finally started campaign to educate them about filing postal ballots correctly. Apart from holding awareness campaign in different units of Ladakh Scouts stationed in the peripheral areas of Leh, Mr Singh also visited two different battalions of Ladakh Scouts under Siachen Brigade.
Like District Election Officer, the Commanding Officers too played vital role in ensuring that these soldiers participate in democratic exercise with the same vigor, which they are exhibiting in the battlefields. They personally monitored the postal balloting of soldiers and senior officers were detailed by each unit to ensure highest possible participation by the soldiers.
The Army units even ensured that the soldiers who were out of their parent units – such as those on leave, trainings and other duties were handed over their postal ballots through specially detailed officials so that the turn out remains maximum and finally the objective has been achieved, the credit of which goes to Election Commission of India, District Election Officer, Leh and COs of Ladakh Scouts.
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