No change in schedule, first phase on Nov 17, says EC

The Election Commission said “no decision” has been taken on postponing elections in J&K, despite the National Conference (NC) asking for deferment of polls because of heavy snowfall in the Valley, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Nov 15, 2008, 01:15:30 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Election Commission on Friday said “no decision” has been taken on postponing elections in Jammu and Kashmir, despite the National Conference (NC) asking for deferment of polls because of heavy snowfall in the Valley.

“No decision has been taken for postponement of elections,” Deputy Election Commissioner R Bhattacharya said while reacting to NC president Omar Abdullah’s demand.

The first phase of elections in the higher reaches and border areas of the Kashmir Valley begins on November 17 and will be held as per schedule, he said.

The commission had factored in some element of snow while preparing contingency plans for the state, he said.

Abdullah said the elections need to be postponed as it would be difficult to campaign in the state due to prevailing weather conditions. Bhattacharya, however, said no party had so far approached the commission for postponement of elections.

According to sources, the commission has sought the army’s help to conduct elections. To ensure the snow does not impact polling, officials said arrangements have been made to ensure polling stations are as close as “possible” to the homes of voters.

But, still on an average a voter might have to travel more than a kilometre to cast vote. The commission has sanctioned 895 polling booths for 5.48 lakh voters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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