Jammu, July 23: With Panchayat and civic bodies’ polls in J&K drawing nearer, the administration as well as election commission has geared up its men and machinery to make arrangements for holding elections to these institutions, likely to be held in the October and November.
 Official sources said the voter lists are being given final touch and publication of draft would be started soon, adding “There will be over 30,000 polling stations for Panchayat level elections across the state.”
 Sources however, said the state was facing shortage of ballot boxes. “Nearly 35,000 ballot boxes are being procured from neighbouring states for conducting smooth and transparent Panchayat elections. We will procure 15,000 ballot boxes from Punjab, 10,000 from Haryana and 10,000 from Himachal Pradesh for hassle free elections,” sources said.
 The government has already declared that the civic bodies and Panchayat elections would be held in the October and November. The Panchayat elections were earlier scheduled in April-May, but the government deferred the polls in view of the ongoing tourist season.
 Talking to Greater Kashmir, Chief Electoral Officer J&K, B R Sharma, said, “We are ready for upcoming Panchayat polls. The process of updating voter lists is going on and the draft publication would be done soon.”
 The CEO said the material and machinery to be used for polls were being procured and the whole process, including release of updated version of voter lists would complete by September end.
 “The number of polling stations for elections to assembly segments is far less than the Panchayat level polls. We have nearly 9000 polling stations for assembly segments, including urban areas, while the total number of polling stations for Panchayat level polls is above 30,000,” the CEO said.
 Sharma said it was not feasible to hold Panchayat polls through Electronic Voting Machines and only ballot boxes were being used for these polls.
 “Only large size ballot boxes are used in elections keeping in view huge number of electorates. We have nearly 5500 to 6000 large ballot boxes in our stock and the remaining boxes would be procured from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The requirement of ballot boxes would also depend on number of phases for conducting elections.”

Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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