Community of Displaced Kashmiri Pandits Oppose postal ballot system

Subodh Bhasin. Dated: 9/19/2018 11:56:10 AM

Subodh Bhasin
Jammu, Sep 18
As the schedule dates for the municipal body elections in Jammu and Kashmir are announced and to be held in four phases. Displaced Kashmiri Pandit voters opposing the use postal ballot to exercise their vote and are considering the boycott of the urban local bodies and panchayat elections.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the urban local bodies elections would be held in October and the panchayat elections in November. The urban local bodies elections are to be held after 13 years while the panchayat elections would be conducted after a gap of seven years.
Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shaleen Kabra has said they had introduced the postal ballot system for ‘migrant’ voters, mostly Kashmiri Hindus who left the Valley in 1990 after the onset of militancy.
As per the notification issued on 16h September, 2018. Consequent upon this Notification, a detailed "Scheme for Voting by Kashmiri Migrants by means of Postal Ballots in the Municipal Elections, 2018" stands Notified vide Order No: CEO/ME/2018/463 dated 17-09-2018.
Several organisations representing Pandits opposing the postal ballot system stated that 3.5 lakh displaced people were being ‘disenfranchised. Although as per the scheme put in forth, electoral rolls to the Kashmir Migrants will be at sixteen (16) places including six (6) transit camps in Kashmir so that they can file an application to opt for Voting by way of Postal ballot.
Satish Koul while talking to Young Bites correspondent said that the urban local bodies elections are related to simple civic issues. We are being forced to vote in municipal wards and committees where Pandits are not living for the past three decades.
“We are against the postal ballot system. The cumbersome process will further discourage the voters, he added.
Opposing the postal ballot several organizations are critical about the move stated that mostly concentrated in the Jammu municipal limits for the past three decades, Pandits want voting rights in Jammu. A majority of them had voted in the 2005 municipal elections. This time, however, they have been deleted from the list.
In the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, the Election Commission establishes special polling booths in Jammu, Udhampur and New Delhi. Pandits are the only people in the country who vote for their candidates while living far away from their constituencies and have no direct link with their local MLA or Member of Parliament.
Living in exile for the past three decades, about 3.5 lakh people have not participated in the panchayat elections in 2001 and 2011.
From several years they are demanding that the migrant camps at Jagti, Muthi, Purkhoo and Nagrota be declared ‘panchayats in exile’ so that community members are able to elect the representatives and ensure better utilisation of developmental funds.

 

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