Security arrangements in place for smooth conduct of BDC polls: DGP

Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Oct 8: All security arrangements for smooth conduct of Block Development Council (BDC) polls across the State on November 7 have been put in place.
This was stated by Director General of Police, Ashok Prasad while talking to EXCELSIOR. “We shall make sure that there are no untoward incidents during the conduct of polls to 143 Councils in the State and all the Panchs, Sarpanchs are able to exercise their franchise without any trouble”, he said exuding confidence.
As per the latest rolls, the Electoral College for the BDC polls comprised 29402 Panchs and 4098 Sarpanchs in the State. “The State Government had also successfully completed the Panchayat polls in July, 2011 despite militants’ threat and the polling percentage was more than 80%. Therefore, there is no doubt that we shall be able to conduct the polls for electing this second tier of Panchayati Raj System without any difficulty”, he added.
Further, Mr Prasad stated that entire exercise has been done to provide security arrangements to 145 polling booths across the State, where people will exercise their franchise.
The 143 BDCs included 77 in Kashmir valley and 66 in Jammu region. Out of a total of 4098 Sarpanchs, 2145 were in Kashmir division and 1953 in Jammu division while out of 29,402 Panchs, 15,767 were in Kashmir division and 13,635 in Jammu division. The State Government had issued the notification for conduct of BDC polls on October 3 this year, with the enforcement of Model Code of Conduct from this date. On the voting day, there will be one polling booth located at block headquarters.
“Before issuance of this notification, State Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal had series of meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer, Umang Narula to work out all arrangements required to address the security concerns associated with the conduct of these polls”, official sources said.
“Like previous elections held in the State, the polling booth had been classified into three categories of normal, sensitive and hyper sensitive and the security deployment at these booths would be as per their category. Out of total 145 polling booths for the State, there are 51 normal, 69 sensitive and 25 hypersensitive polling booths spread in the entire State”, sources corroborated.
Whileas there are 143 BDCs, the authorities have set up 145 polling booths for casting votes for electing the chairpersons. Two extra booths have been set up at Qaimoh and Kellar blocks to facilitate voters as each of these block falls in two districts. While Qaimoh falls in Kulgam and Anantnag district; Keller falls in Pulwama and Shopian district.
The elections will be conducted through ballot boxes and ballot papers as this was required as per the provisions of the State Panchayati Raj Act. To conduct the elections, the CEO has appointed 143 Returning Officers, 145 Assistant Returning Officers, 145 Presiding and 290 Polling Officers.
The voting would start at 9 am and continue till 3 pm on November 7 and results shall be declared the same evening at the block headquarters. The Photo Electoral rolls of all the Sarpanchs and Panchs had already been prepared and will be used during the polling, sources said.
This would be the second tier of the Panchayats after the election of Panchs and Sarpanchs. The elections will be held on non-party basis, like the Panchayat elections. The chairperson of these BDC would be the members of the District Development Boards.

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