Voting underway for 7th phase of J&K panchayat polls
TNN Bureau. Updated: 12/4/2018 1:18:53 PM
Politics
R S Pura, Jammu, Dec 4: Braving chilly weather, people of the border areas on Tuesday lined up to cast their votes for the seventh phase of panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir which got underway at 0800 hrs.
The nine-phased panchayat polls in the state will conclude on December 11.
However, 15 districts are participating in the election process on Tuesday across the state comprising six from Jammu region, including Ramban, Reasi, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch.
The election process is on at as many as 2,714 polling stations across the state, including 576 in Kashmir division and 2,138 in Jammu division.
The polling will conclude at 1400 hrs.
"We have come to vote for development of our block," Jyoti Choudhary, a voter at Avdal Halqa in R S Pura said.
She said that people have come to vote to elect the representative who fight for their rights and get the infrastructure and facilities available especially when cross border firing takes place.
"During firing the border dwellers have no adequate facilities so that they shift to safe destinations during firing besides health, food like arrangements," Shanker Singh, 74, said.
He added that the villagers want to elect the representative who is active, alert and get their works done.
Development and facilities during cross border firing were the main agendas for which the residents in this constituency participated in large in voting process.
Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shaleen Kabra said that 464 polling stations have been categorised as hypersensitive in this phase in Jammu division.
He said 5,575 candidates are in the fray across the state for 341 sarpanch and 1,798 panch seats in Phase-VII, while 85 sarpanchs and 912 panchs have been elected unopposed.
He said in the areas going to polls in Phase-VII, a total of 4,75,865 electorate will be voting for Sarpanch constituencies and 3,45,880 for Panch constituencies.
The CEO said at the end of six phases of Panchayat Polls, overall voter turnout of 73.6 per cent was recorded across the state, with a poll percentage of 46.1 per cent in the Kashmir division and 82.8per cent in the Jammu division.