SEC to buy 40,000 more ballot boxes
Arvind Sharma
Jammu Tawi, Apr 28: The State Election Commission (SEC) has pulled up its socks for holding the much delayed Panchayat elections in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as its has decided to buy forty thousand (40,000) more ballot boxes for these elections and these will be bought through proper tendering process.
Already, 30,000 ballot boxes have been sent to different districts of J&K for smooth conduct of Panchayat elections.
“We felt the need of 40,000 more ballot boxes apart from the 30,000 already sent to different districts of J&K for holding the Panchayat elections in the J&K UT,” sources informed the Northlines.
They said that the 40,000 ballot boxes will be bought by way of global tendering process through Gem Portal. After getting the ballot boxes, the SEC will send these to different polling stations under tight security.
The SEC has been closely analyzing electoral rolls for holding Panchayat elections as soon as possible and in this regard meeting will be held tomorrow, and on 15th of May next month, electoral rolls (voters) will be made public.
After this, the SEC will send its report to the Home Ministry after which the Union Government will take final call on holding panchayat elections in J&K.
It may be mentioned here that there are thirty three thousand (33,000) panchayats in the J&K UT. The last panchayat elections in J&K were also held through ballot boxes and now also in the upcoming elections the people will have to vote through ballot box in the Panchayat elections.
It may be mentioned that the term of ULBs expired around 2 years back, while the term of Block Development Councils (BDCs) also expired around 2 years back. The term of Panchs and Sarpanchs also expired in 2024.
The three-tier grass roots level democracy in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) expired on February 24th after the term of all the 278 District Development Council (DDC) members, including twenty (20) Chairmen, expired.
