Life across the Kashmir Valley was adversely affected today due to a separatist shutdown called against the ongoing panchayat polls in the state.
File photo elections in J&K.
Polling for the first phase of panchayat election in Jammu and Kashmir began on Saturday amidst stringent security arrangements.
Voting began at 8 AM at 3,296 polling stations — 1,303 in Kashmir and 1,993 in Jammu — and would end at 2 PM, officials said adding that 687 polling stations have been categorized as “hypersensitive”, including 491 in Kashmir division and 196 in Jammu division.
Advertisement
The officials said that in the first phase polling, 85 sarpanch and 1,676 panch have been elected unopposed while voting is taking place on the remaining 420 sarpanch and 1,845 panch seats, for which 5,585 candidates are in the fray.
Advertisement
There are 4,45,059 electors for sarpanch seats and 2,72,792 for panch constituencies.
Life across the Kashmir Valley was adversely affected today due to a separatist shutdown called against the ongoing panchayat polls in the state.
The shutdown was called by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.
Public transport, shops, other business establishments in Srinagar city and other district headquarters of the valley remained closed while some private vehicles were seen on the roads.
Attendance in government offices, banks and post offices was also affected due to the non-availability of public transport.
Majority of educational institutions remained closed.
Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed on Srinagar’s old city areas and other law and order sensitive places .
No untoward incident was reported from anywhere so far.
(With agency inputs)
Advertisement
