EC establishes four special polling booths for Kmri migrants in Delhi

Jammu: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set up four special polling booths for the Kashmiri migrant community at various locations in Delhi, officials on Wednesday said.
Over 1.13 lakh Kashmiri migrants are registered to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections for the Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla constituencies in the Kashmir Valley, they said.
Polling for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency will be held on May 25 followed by Srinagar on May 13 and Baramulla on May 20.
"To facilitate the Kashmiri migrants residing in Delhi to cast their votes in person on the polling days during the Lok Sabha elections for seats across Jammu and Kashmir, the ECI has established special polling booths for the community at four different locations in the capital," an official spokesman said.These booths are located at the Kashmir Resident Commission on Prithviraj Road, Kashmir Kisan Ghar in Shalimar Bagh, Arwachin International Public School in Dilshad Garden and GGSSS Paprawat in Najafgarh, Delhi.
"In a first, the ECI has instructed to provide free transportation for eligible Kashmiri migrants to and from these special booths," reads a communication received here today. The transport service will be provided from the camps to their respective polling stations and back.
To extend support to the Kashmiri migrant voters, the office of AERO and ARO, Migrants, New Delhi, is efficiently functioning during working hours at Prithviraj Road in New Delhi and has set up a help desk that has assisted numerous stakeholders in filing offline and online Form-M, Form 12-C, and other necessary documents, he said.Apart from this, a series of camps and meetings have been organized to raise awareness and increase the percentage of Kashmiri migrant voters in the capital.
The official said booth-level officers are also visiting door-to-door to educate and assist the migrant voters.
These efforts have resulted in a notable increase in the enrollment of voters as compared to the last parliamentary elections, he added.
As per the data, about 169 voters have been registered along with receiving 65 Form-M and 4 Form-12Cs for the Baramulla parliamentary constituency, 480 voters have been registered along with receiving 183-Form Ms and 8-Form 12Cs for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency, while 95 voters have been registered along with receiving 40-Form Ms for the Anantnag parliamentary constituency till date.The official said the Kashmiri migrants are showing keen interest in participating in the upcoming elections and a high voter turnout is expected during these polls.