ECI to visit J-K on March 4 to review security situation

A team of the Election Commission will visit Jammu and Kashmir on March 4 to review the security situation ahead of the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, officials said on Friday.

Keeping in view the upcoming general elections, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered cancellation of leaves of the government officers.

"Leave of any kind sanctioned to the gazetted officers except on medical grounds, child care leave for study purpose shall stand cancelled with effect from Monday," commissioner secretary of general administrative department Hilal Ahmed said in a order on Friday.

All officer shall remain available at their headquarters and places of posting till the conclusion of the elections, he said.

State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar had said that his office had already taken necessary steps for holding the elections, but decision lies with the Election Commission, who would take a final call at an appropriate time after taking all aspects into consideration.

Speaking about the progress on updation of voters for which the final publication date was January 1, Kumar said the exercise was launched on September 1, but the date was extended by the Election Commission for the state, along with some other states till January 31.

During this period, as many as 3,07,813 additions, 1,25,834 deletions, 94,565 corrections and 14,989 transpositions were made, the CEO said.

A massive awareness programme has been launched to educate the masses about the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT).

The CEO said the Election Commission had allocated 17,000 additional EVMs with VVPAT facilities to the state to be used in the elections.