L-G sets up team to enable Kashmiri Pandits to vote

SRINAGAR:  In a measure to ensure that Kashmiri migrants participate in the democratic process and cast their votes in the coming Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Lt Governor administration has constituted teams to ensure that displaced people from Valley putting up at Jammu and other parts of the country are enrolled as bonafide voters of Kashmir.

An official said with an aim to ensure maximum awareness and facilitation of migrant Kashmir Pandits in electoral rolls of constituencies of their original residence, 22 teams have been constituted in camp and non-camp areas of J&K.

They would launch an outreach program for enrolling migrant Pandits in the electoral rolls at  Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Delhi and Chandigarh. Besides, two special teams have been constituted and 16 officers, 56 officials and 50 casual labourers have been engaged under the supervision of Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (M), J&K to reach out to the Pandits and ensure their enrollment in the voter list.

After the outbreak of militancy in J&K in 1990, the Kashmiri Pandits migrated en masse from Kashmir and moved to Jammu and other parts of the country. As per the government, approximately 60,000 families of Pandits, Muslims and Sikhs migrated from the valley after the eruption of militancy and a majority of these families preferred to settle in Jammu and its adjoining areas while 23,000 such migrant families settled outside the J&K UT.

“For Zonal Area Awareness Campaign, officers have been assigned the task of conducting door-to-door awareness programs and enrollment of Kashmiri Migrants in Electoral Rolls,” the official said.