Enthusiasm was palpable among voters at polling booths here on Saturday as the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls and panchayat by-elections, the first democratic exercise in Jammu and Kashmir since it was reorganised as a union territory last year, was underway.
With the abrogation of Article 370, several communities like West Pakistan refugees, Valmikis and Gurkhas are now eligible to vote in local elections, purchase land and apply for jobs in Jammu and Kashmir, and besides these, they can also contest elections.
On August 5, 2019, New Delhi revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Since then, the government has introduced several laws, including those related to land and domicile status.
“We have heard the words equality, justice and liberty, and today we are feeling the true meaning of these words,” SujatiBharti, a young voter from the West Pakistan refugee community, said standing in a queue outside a polling station at KotGhari in Akhnoor block in the outskirts of Jammu. She thanked New Delhi for its decision to do away with the special status, saying members of her community were exercising their right to vote in local elections after 70 years.
Bharti said she felt liberated as she stood in a queue with permanent residents. Justice has finally been granted after an over seven-decade-long struggle, she added.
Except for parliamentary elections, these refugees were, till last year, barred in Jammu and Kashmir from voting in assembly, panchayat and urban local body polls.