Post delimitation, revision of electoral rolls begins in J&K

New Delhi, June 15

Setting in motion the process of holding Assembly elections in J&K, the Election Commission has initiated the revision of electoral rolls following the delimitation exercise in the UT.

It is learnt that the draft rolls will be ready by August 31.

Sources in the poll panel said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey held a review meeting on the issue and issued directions to the J&K Chief Electoral Officer to map the redrawn Assembly constituencies. The electoral roll revision is needed for conducting the first Assembly election in the UT.

Officials said the intensive and time-bound pre-revision activities were required due to the redrawing of electoral constituencies.

Directions have also been given for the appointment of officials for the work on updating the voter list.

Re-serialisation, mapping and renaming of polling stations post delimitation will be done by June 30, in addition to the identification of polling stations for the villages for which new booths have to be created, the sources said.

After the delimitation, some of the earlier polling stations may come under more than one constituency or may be completely shifted to another constituency. The polling stations will be mapped accordingly, the sources added.

The appointment of booth-level officers and their training will be done by July 5 and the verification and rationalisation of polling booths will be done by July 25, the sources said, adding that the final draft rolls have to be prepared by August 31.

During the revision exercise, citizens will be given the opportunity to enrol, delete and change their particulars in the electoral rolls, the sources said.

Verification targets

June 30: Re-serialisation, mapping and renaming of polling stations post delimitation

July 5: Appointment and training of booth-level officers

July 25: Verification and rationalisation of polling booths

90 Assembly seats

• Intensive electoral roll revision is required due to redrawing of constituencies by delimitation panel
• J&K now has 90 Assembly seats — 43 in Jammu division and 47 in Kashmir — with nine reserved for STs