Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 28: To express their resentment and turn the attention of Election Commission of India (ECI) against the non inclusion of names of a large number of Kashmiri migrants in the voter lists for the Parliamentary Constituency of Anantnag, the activists of Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj (YAIKS) held a demonstration in front of Chief Electoral Office here today.
The protestors led by YAIKS president R K Bhat alleged that the despite filling up M Forms in time the names of migrant voters were missing in voter lists.
The protestors alleged that both Election Commission of India and the Government have failed to protect the fundamental rights of the displaced Pandits and deprived them of exercising their franchise who are leading a refugee life for last 25 years.
Addressing the demonstrators R K Bhat said that Anantnag Parliamentary Constituency has over 32,000 KP votes and when majority of the migrants from this Constituency had filled up their M Forms they were surprised to see that their names were missing in electoral rolls when they went to cast their vote. He alleged that the migrant electoral rolls were not updated for years together by the authorities and the names of many bonafide voters have been deleted from the lists. He also accused the authorities of abandoning the process regarding formation of EPIC cards for migrants.
YAIKS in an appeal to ECI has urged it to probe the matter and take action against the guilty who are responsible for not including the names of bonafide KP voters in voter lists and deprived them of their democratic right.
Later a delegation led by R K Bhat called on Chief Electoral Officer M Narula and discussed the issue with him. Mr Bhat said that the delegation was assured by CEO that the matter will be investigated.
The CEO also informed the delegation that he will look into the matter that why EPIC cards have not been distributed among the migrants till date.
Bhat said that CEO informed the delegation that it is not mandatory that those who have filled up the M Forms can cast their vote but those who are having EPIC cards can also cast their vote.
D N Bhat, Sunil Koul, Manoj Handoo, Sanjay Ganjoo, Ajay Safaya Deepak and Ajay Raina were among others who were the part of delegation.
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