Srinagar, Apr 20: After much delay, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has set the ball rolling to conduct elections to the four vacant seats of Legislative Council, in which Sarpanchs and Panchs across the state would vote. The ECI has appointed Electroral Registration Officer and Appellate Authority for holding these polls.
 Sources told Greater Kashmir that Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Harcharanjit Singh has been appointed as electoral registration officer and B R Sharma as Appellate Authority, for conducting elections to the four LC seats.
 “This is the first step towards holding polls which have got delayed after holding of Panchayat elections last year. And there will be only updation of electoral rolls now,” they said, adding electoral college comprises of elected Sarpanchs and Panchs.
 According to the sources, Electoral College for four seats would consist of around 2164 Sarpanchs and 15,959 Panchs from Kashmir division and 1966 Sarpanchs and 13,760 Panchs from Jammu.
 “As  per the procedure proposed by the office of the CEO for holding the polls, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir will be the Returning Officer for two seats of the division while his Jammu counterpart will perform the duty in his jurisdiction. The district administrative heads of all the 22 districts will act as Assistant Returning Officers. Besides election booths will be set up in all block headquarters for polling by Sarpanchs and Panchs,” they added.
 Talking to Greater Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Jammu and Kashmir, B R Sharma confirmed that process for conducting these polls has  begun and said that  polls for vacant seats would be conducted by May end.
 “The process has begun and we are waiting for the passes to open in far-flung areas like Gurez , Tanghdar as elected representatives of Panchayats from these areas have to cast their votes,” he said.
 Sharma added that there would be no revision of electoral rolls as list of elected Sarpanchs, Panchs is lying with them.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST