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Mahesh

13/04/24 05:20 AM IST

ECI abolishes cumbersome procedure of Form-M for migrants residing at Jammu and Udhampur

In News
  • In a major decision to facilitate voting by Kashmiri migrants in the ongoing General Elections 2024, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has abolished the cumbersome procedure of filling Form-M for the displaced people from valley who are residing in Jammu and Udhampur.
Form-M
  • The Form-M procedure subjects these voters to additional bureaucratic hurdles compared to other voters and also the process of filling out the Form-M is often complex and cumbersome, requiring specific documentation, proof of migration status and attestation by a gazetted officer.
  • All the 22 special polling stations (21 in Jammu and 1 in Udhampur) shall be mapped to camps/zones individually, ensuring that every zone has at least one Special Polling Station.
  • In case there are multiple polling stations in one zone, the zonal officers shall earmark the intra-zonal jurisdiction for each such polling station keeping in mind the distance/ease of approach for each set of electors. In case there is any zone that does not have any of the existing Special Polling Stations, a new Special Polling Station shall be proposed by the ARO Migrant concerned in a suitable Government building following all extant directions of the Commission concerning setting up a polling station, including consultation with political parties.
  • In order to doubly ensure that no elector who opts for postal ballot by filling Form 12C gets the voting opportunity to vote at these special polling stations, the ARO Migrant Jammu who is the nodal officer for Postal Ballots under the scheme, shall ensure that in case Form 12C is received from any of these electors and the postal ballot has been dispatched, marking of ‘PB’ shall be made against the name of the said elector in the corresponding Electoral Roll Extracts.
Scheme for Kashmiri Migrants
  • As per the scheme, Kashmiri migrant voters, who are residing at various relief camps in Delhi, Jammu, and Udhampur and who have opted to cast their votes in person through Electronic Voting Machines at the forthcoming General Election to the Lok Sabha, 2024 can do so at any one of the designated polling stations located at Delhi (4), Jammu (21) and Udhampur (1) by filling Form M.
  • Those migrant voters who have opted to vote using postal ballots may apply for the postal ballot paper in the prescribed Form 12-C
  • Migrant electors residing at various places other than Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi can also vote in person or using postal ballot and can download Form-M and Form 12-C from the Commission’s website and after filling, such forms shall get it verified from the Electoral Registration Officer of the areas where he/she is residing.
  • The Electoral Registration Officers can have access to the details of migrant electors enrolled in different Parliamentary Constituency in Kashmir through ERO-Net. The ERO concerned, after verifying details in the Form-M will scan and upload it to electronically transmit the same to AROs Migrants at Delhi, Jammu and Udhampur for further necessary action.
Source- PIB

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