The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : Only 20 per cent of polling stations normal in J&K

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 09, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

Only 20 per cent of polling stations normal in J&K

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, APRIL 8. In the state of Jammu and Kashmir only 20 per cent of the polling stations are normal, while the rest of the polling stations have been classified under the category of sensitive and hyper-sensitive. Right now in the state there 7217 polling stations, out of which 3093 of these have been declared as hyper-sensitive , 2680 sensitive, while there are only 1444 normal polling stations in the state. This means only 20 per cent of the polling stations in the state are categorised as normal.

There will be 1099 hyper-sensitive polling stations in Jammu province while the rest are in Kashmir province. 1382 polling stations have been categorised as sensitive in Jammu region in which the highest number of 353 hyper-sensitive polling stations have been identified in Udhampur followed by 233 in district Doda.

Giving details here, the state chief electoral officer B.L. Namesh said, "An effective security strategy has been worked out to provide the voters a safe environ so that they could cast their votes in large numbers with a greater sense of confidence. A high-level security meet has already finalised the security arrangements and decided several measures in this behalf." All the contestants are being provided adequate security as per the threat perception, the officer added. Most of the hyper-sensitive polling stations are in the hilly tract which provides conducive terrain to the militants to launch attacks on the polling stations. Militants have specifically spread terror on the polling day in the past particularly in interiors of Rajouri district and Mahore area of Udhampur.

Besides this, a team of Election Commission visited migrant camps at Mishriwalla, Purkhoo and Muthi camps to review the arrangements made for Kashmiri migrant voters to ensure free, fair and transparent parliamentary elections for them. Eight special polling stations are being set up for migrant voters so that they can exercise their right of franchise. Already 1200 migrant voters have given their consent by way of submitting M-forms with the concerned authorities for casting of their votes on the Electronic voting machine.

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