As the administration has decided to go ahead with the local body and panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, there has been a spike in violence in the past few days as unknown persons torched eight panchayat offices in the Valley.
The Central government and the Governor’s administration have decided to hold these polls despite boycott by mainstream regional parties. Only Congress and BJP have decided to participate in these elections.
“There have been fresh threats to the officials and cops in different villages and we are getting feedback from every village,” a senior police officer told The Sunday Guardian. He said that the threat perception is more because of social media and said that they have decided to provide adequate security to all the candidates and officials during the local polls.
In urban local bodies, nominations for which have opened in 422 municipal wards in Kashmir Valley, not a single candidate has applied so far because of renewed threats by militants. Regional political parties like National Conference and PDP as well as terrorist organisations like Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) have asked the people not to participate in these elections.
State Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam has asked his administration to be ready for the polls and has asked police to provide secure environment for the candidates and people to participate in these polls. On his instructions, the state administration has recently decided to provide Rs 10 lakh insurance cover to any candidate who is willing to contest in these polls.
Director-General of Police Dilbagh Singh told the media that they will deploy additional security forces and will provide security to all the candidates who will contest in these polls. He said that some mischievous elements were trying to magnify the threat perception and said that all such elements would be taken care of. In absence of PDP and National Conference, it would be more challenging for the administration to motivate the candidates and people to participate in these polls. Both these parties have linked their participation with the fate of Article 35(A) and have asked the Central government to clear its stand on the special status of J&K. A senior officer looking after the preparation of the polls told this newspaper that municipal polls would be held in four phase from October 8 to 16. He said that they are getting 20,000 ballot boxes from Haryana while EVMs would be brought from Punjab.
According to State Election officials, they have prepared the road map to hold the panchayat elections in eight phases. They admitted that with each passing day, it is becoming visible that it would be a huge challenge to conduct these polls, especially in South Kashmir.