SEC reviews preparations at high-level meet
* Purchase of ballot boxes, printing of material discussed
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 9: The State Election Commission (SEC) today set in motion the process for preparation of electoral rolls for the Panchayat elections devising a detailed schedule in which final electoral rolls for the elections will be published on May 10.
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State Election Commissioner, Shantmanu told the ‘Excelsior’ after the meeting that a detailed schedule has been devised for revision of electoral rolls for the Panchayats at the high-level meeting held today which was attended by the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir, all 20 Deputy Commissioners, senior officers of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj department and NIC among others. Most of the officers joined the meeting through the video conferencing.
The meeting held in-depth review of the revision of Panchayat rolls and decided to fix April 1, 2026 as the cut-off date for inclusion of new voters for the Panchayats.
“The NIC will conduct pre revision exercise for supplementary integration of previous electoral rolls with the main list within 10-12 days,” Shantmanu said, adding this exercise is expected to be completed by March 20-22.
The draft electoral rolls will be published within a month of completion of the exercise by the NIC i.e. temtatively by March 23.
“One-month time will be given to the people for filing objections to the draft rules. During this period, 3-4 camps will also be held at the week-ends to facilitate the process,’” Shantmanu said, adding this process will be followed by examination of electoral rolls for about two weeks.
“Tentatively, the final electoral rolls will be published on May 10,” the SEC said.
There are about 9 million voters in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Deputy Commissioners are the District Elections Officers. The Panchayat Secretaries will act as the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The high-level meeting also discussed the steps for purchase of ballot boxes, printing of ballot papers and other material.
The Panchayat elections can be held only after the final electoral rolls are published.
Further, the UT Government also has to take a call on the OBC Commission which has recommended percentage of reservation for the OBCs in Panchayats, Municipalities, Block Development Councils (BDCs) and District Development Councils (DDCs).
The Commission had submitted its recommendations in February last year and the Government has not taken a decision on the report so far.
However, as far as the electoral rolls for the Urban Local Bodies are concerned, they will be taken from the SIR which is scheduled to be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir from the month of April this year.
The SEC is mandated to hold elections to Panchayats, Municipalities, Block Development Councils (BDCs) and District Development Council (DDCs). However, post of the State Election Commissioner remained vacant for about 10 months till Shantmanu was appointed as the SEC few days back.
Term of the Municipalities in J&K ended during October-November 2023 while Panchayats and Block Development Councils completed their tenure on January 9, 2024. The DDCs completed their five-year term on February 24 this year.
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