Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Sept 22: The Election Department is likely to go ahead with publication of final electoral rolls on scheduled date of October 1 provided that data from some of the districts badly affected by worst ever floods and rains in Kashmir province is not lost and is furnished to office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) well in time.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the District Election Officer (DEOs) in Jammu and Ladakh regions were ready with data of final electoral rolls while in Kashmir province the DEOs of some of the districts have completed most of the task of compiling data but were yet to fully complete them.
“If the data is not lost by the DEOs in flood hit districts of the Kashmir Valley, they too would be able to submit it to the office of the CEO, which would publish final electoral rolls on October 1,’’ they said, adding that presently only 65 per cent work of revision of electoral rolls has been completed in the Valley and the time was running out as only 8 days were left for them to finish the job or otherwise the publication of rolls could be delayed.
The DEOs, who happened to be Deputy Commissioners of the districts, have completed the process for publication of electoral rolls in Jammu and Ladakh regions. They were giving final touch to the figures before submitting them to the CEO office in the next couple of days. Jammu and Ladakh regions comprised 12 out of 22 districts of the State.
In 10 districts of Kashmir, the DEOs had accomplished 65 per cent task pertaining to publication of electoral rolls in view of floods and rains that lashed the Valley on September 5 and 6 hampering working of the administration very badly in most of the districts with rescue, relief and rehabilitations measures dominating every other task.
Sources said the Election Department officials were in regular touch with the DEOs of flood hit districts to ascertain whether data has suffered loss or whether they would be able to submit it in time for publication of final electoral rolls on October 1. They added that if the DEOs of all districts of Kashmir furnished the data well in time, the electoral rolls would be published on October 1.
Sources pointed out that since August 16 was last date for the electorate for filing claims and objections to electoral rolls, the task had been successfully executed by all the DEOs as there was no problem in the State by then. After August 16, the DEOs had started compiling the data of final electoral rolls and the task has now almost been completed in 10 districts of Jammu region and two districts of Ladakh and some districts of the Valley.
“If everything goes well, the DEOs of even flood hit district of Kashmir could submit the data in next few days enabling office of the CEO to publish final electoral rolls on October 1,’’ sources said, adding that publication of rolls can be delayed only if the DEOs of some districts of Kashmir were unable to submit the requisite data.
The final publication of electoral rolls is pre requisite for holding Assembly elections. A decision on holding or deferring Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on schedule i.e. November-December would be taken by the full Election Commission after their visit to J&K when flood situation improves in the State.
Worthwhile to mention here that in all other States the final electoral rolls published on January 1 can be taken into account for holding Assembly elections while in Jammu and Kashmir, there were four dates for publication of electoral rolls including January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. As elections were scheduled to be held in November-December in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Department had ordered summary revision of electoral rolls in June with publication of final rolls on October 1.
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