Polls in J&K: Review by CEO soon

Jammu, Jan 19: A team of the Election Commission will soon visit Jammu and Kashmir to review the situation with political leaders and other stakeholders on polls in the state.

"A team of Election Commission will visit the state soon to have a review of situation with political leaders and other stakeholders for holding the elections," state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar said Friday.

On the issue of holding of simultaneous polls, the CEO informed that his office had already taken necessary steps for holding the elections, but decision lies with the Election Commission, who would take a final call at an appropriate time after taking all aspects into consideration.

Speaking about the progress on updation of voters for which the final publication date was January 1, Shailendra said the exercise was launched on September 1, but the date was extended by the Election Commission for the state, along with some other states till January 31.

During this period, as many as 3,07,813 additions, 1,25,834 deletions, 94,565 corrections and 14,989 transpositions were made, the CEO said.

A massive awareness programme will being launched soon to educate the masses about the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT).

The CEO said the Election Commission had allocated 17,000 additional EVMs with VVPAT facilities to the state to be used in the elections.