Srinagar: Expressing hope that the district will continue its previous trend and register a high voter turnout in the Legislative Assembly elections scheduled to be held on December 2, Deputy Commissioner Itrat Hussain Rafique said that all measure have been taken to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling in all the five constituencies in the border district of Kupwara.
"Kupwara district has always witnessed a very high voter turnout in both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the past. All precautionary measures have been taken to build confidence among people to come out and vote without any fear," Rafique said while talking to IBNLive.
He said that the authorities have set up 535 polling stations in all the five constituencies, out of which 435 are hyper sensitive, 82 are vulnerable and 83 are critical. Meanwhile, four polling stations have no voters as they have migrated.
The Kupwara Deputy Commissioner said the highest number of 129 polling booths have been set up in Kupwara and Lolab constituencies followed by 120 polling booths in Handwara, 97 in Langate and lowest 60 polling stations in Karnah.
Rafique said that there are nine polling stations close to Line of Control (LoC) which are within the firing range of the Pakistani Army. "Nine polling stations including Seemari, Karhanah, Amroha, Arohe-B, Sudpora, Jabri, Jamhim, Keran, Hardehi Bala are within the firing range from across the border. Even though no ceasefire violations have been reported so far, the district administration has taken permission from the Election Commission (EC) to shift these polling stations to safer place in the event of firing. If the firing stops say in 10 minutes, we will resume polling from the same booth," he said.
This frontier district has 248 km LoC with Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), he said, adding 64 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in Handwara while 61 companies have been placed in Kupwara to maintain law and order during the elections.
All polling stations have been given a wireless sets as mobile networking is not available in some areas, he said, adding that at three places polling staff has been given satellite phones as wireless sets are also not working.
Meanwhile, for the first time Live Web casting at 10 polling booths have been introduced in the district. "Polling could be seen live in any part of the world," he said and added that only those booths have been selected which has electricity connection.
EVMs and other poll related material besides poll officials will be sent to far flung and remote areas on Monday, he said.
In case of closure of roads due to heavy snowfall, poll material and poll staff would be airlifted to cut off areas. "We have got approval from the EC to press into service 200 sorties to airlift poll material and staff to cut off areas in Machil, Karnah and other areas," he said, adding sophisticated snow clearance machines and recovery vans are also ready to meet any snow challenge.
Meanwhile, a high level security review of the arrangements made for the Assembly polling in the district was held under GOC 15 Corps Lt General Subrata Saha and Inspector General of Police Abdul Gani Lone on Sunday.
"We have taken all necessary measures to provide conducive atmosphere to 3,99,776 voters, who will exercise their franchise on December 2," Kupwara Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) MR Bhat said.
Even though the Army is not directly involved in the Electoral process, Bhat said that it has been deployed in major parts of the district, particularly on the LoC to foil any terrorist attacks and infiltration bid from PoK.
Abid Soffi is the Managing Editor 'Kashmir Pioneer'. He lives in Srinagar.
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