Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 7: In a major reform in the electoral process of Jammu and Kashmir, the State would join rest of the country by this weekend in having Single Voter List for all elections, the process for which was nearing completion and the List could be published anytime now.
“Jammu and Kashmir, by this weekend, will join all States of the country in having Single Voter List. It was scheduled to be published on July 1, 2015 and we are going to publish it by this weekend. The List will be a major electoral reform,” Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shantmanu told the Excelsior.
He said Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand were left out from publication of Single Voter List last year due to Assembly elections in the two States. However, the task has now been completed and J&K would join rest of the States in having this list, he added.
As per the concept of Single Voter List, all voter lists will be merged into the one list, which will cater to all elections like Assembly, Parliament, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayats etc.
Shantmanu said once the Single Voter List is published, it will be given to all Deputy Commissioners to segregate the urban voters for preparing the rolls for Urban Local Bodies elections.
“Once we receive the deadline from the Government for holding elections to the Municipalities, we will need at least three months time to prepare the lists for the ULB polls,” Shantmanu, who had recently taken over as the CEO of J&K after Umang Narula proceeded on the Central deputation, said.
Official sources said the Election Commission of the State had received a message in April from the Government for holding elections to the ULBs but thereafter no further communication has been received. “Once we get the communication, we will set the election process into motion,” they said, adding that some steps required for holding the elections like appointments of Election Returning Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs has been done.
“All 87 EROs and three to four AEROs with one ERO have been designated. Further process like revision of electoral rolls for the Municipalities will be initiated only once a formal communication is received from the State Government in which the Urban Development Department had to give one deadline to the Election Department to complete election process for ULBs by that date,” sources said, adding that such a communication was yet to be received.
The Election Department then required three months time for revision of electoral rolls for the ULBs including addition and deletion of names, corrections, updation etc.
The number of electorates in Jammu and Kashmir, as of now, has touched around 7 million, sources said.
They said India is set to become the first country in the world to have biometric data and no duplicity in the voters’ list after linking of Aadhar card with voter identity card.
“When we are able to see the Aadhar figure (number) on EPIC card, it will ensure that there is not a single duplicate number. We will do it definitely by the end of this year or early next year and then India will be the only country in the world where there will be complete biometric of voters. There will be not a single fraud or duplicate voters,” sources said.
Once the Aadhar number is mentioned in the electoral rolls then individual voters can also change their address online because Aadhar will be the basic identity.
“It will remove all allegations of duplicity in the voters list and harassment to voters in changing their address, sources said.
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