Village of 144 gazetted officers register 70 per cent turnout

Rafiabad, north Kashmir, Apr 24 (UNI) A village in this constituency of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district, which has given the state as many as 144 gazetted officers, witnessed a record voter turnout in today's by-elections.

A presideng officer of a polling booth at Tragpora village in Rafiabad constituency was all praise for the voters.

''I was told that the village has given as many as 144 gazetted officers to the state. I must tell you that the voters here are well behaved and organised. I has absolutely no problem in dealing with them,'' the polling official said.

The voting here has been held in an absolute smooth manner, he added.

The village has a total of 976 voters and by 1500 hrs when this correspondent visited the booth, as many as 655 people had already exercised their franchise, which comes to about 70 per cent.

In the nearby village of Nowgam, 200 voters out of the total 227 had cast their ballots by the same time, whioch comes to about an unprecedented 95 per cent.

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