EC makes voting simple for Kashmiri migrants in Jammu and Udhampur

THE EC has simplified the voting process for Kashmiri migrants living in Jammu and Udhampur, who will no longer have to fill out an additional ‘Form M’, the EC announced Friday. For those Kashmiri migrants living outside of Jammu and Udhampur, the ‘Form M’ is still mandatory but would now require self-attestation rather than attestation by a gazetted officer, the EC said.

“Various representations were received from several Kashmiri migrant groups projecting the difficultiesthey face in filling of form M every election, which brings a lot of hassle to them in exercising their right to franchise. The Form M procedure subjects these voters to additional bureaucratic hurdles compared to other voters and also the process of filling out the Form Mis often complex and cumbersome,requiring specific documentation, proof of migration status and attestation by a gazetted officer ,” anec statements aid.

It said the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer had also agreed with this demand of political parties on April 9. The 22 special polling stations (21 in Jammu and one in Udhampur) would be mapped according to the camps or zones so that every zone has at least one special polling station, it said.

Since militancy forced them out of the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s, Kashmiri Pandit migrants who are staying in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi have been voting at special polling stations. For the Lok Sabha elections, the EC had on March 22 notified the scheme for the migrants to vote in the transitory camps or voting by postal ballots for the Baramulla, Srinagar and Anantnag-rajouri Parliamentary constituencies.