Voter gender ratio has improved in Jammu and Kashmir where 2.31 lakh new electors have been added in the final electoral roll ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The total number of electors has increased to 86.93 lakh. Gender ratio has also improved from 924 to 954 in the new electoral roll.
The chief electoral officer said the final electoral rolls have been published which include 44.35 lakh male and 42.58 lakh female voters.
The final electoral list has been uploaded on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer.
According to the chief electoral officer, 86,000 names have been deleted because of death, shifting or other reasons besides correction in details of 1.45 lakh electors during the process.
As of now, there are 86.93 lakh electors including 44.35 lakh male and 42.58 lakh female voters. The elector population ratio has improved from 0.59 to 0.60 and gender ratio from 924 to 954.
As per the detailed directions of Election Commission of India (ECI), the process of special summary revision of electoral roll with qualifying date as 1 January, 2024 was carried out. The process involved two major stages, the first stage was with regard to training of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) , Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) . It also included house to house visits by BLOs and rationalisation of Polling Stations which was carried out from June to September, 2023.
During the process, as per the criteria of the ECI, 259 new Polling Stations were created by following a process of consultation with the political parties. During the house to house visits, BLOs raised awareness among the population.
The second stage activity was started with publication of Draft Electoral Roll on 17 October 2023.
For involving stakeholders including recognised state and national parties, the District Election Officers (DEOs) held meetings with them, briefed them about the total process to be followed and appealed to them to participate in the process by way of appointing booth level agents, so that they can assist the booth level officers in addition/deletion/correction/transposition of eligible voters.
The J&K CEO has also specifically written Demi Official (DO) letters to the State Level functionaries of recognised State and National Political Parties, highlighting the major stages of the revision and solicited their active support in the total process.
The period for filing claims and objections was up to 30 November, 2023, during this period 4 special camps were held on 4th, 5th, 18th and 19th November, 2023.
The EROs as per the detailed directions of the Election Commission of India accepted claims and objections and following due process decided on them by 12 January 2024. They also dealt with demographically similar entries and photo similar entries at the Part and AC level.
In order to supervise and closely monitor the total process, 4 Special Roll Observers were appointed in addition to two Divisional Commissioners. The Roll Observers visited the offices of EROs, Polling Booth and also attended the Special Camps.
During their field visit and table top exercise, they conveyed the necessary directions so as to make the process complying with the directions of the Commission.
In order to cover the eligible voters of Kashmir migrants, 4 Special AEROs held camps in their areas and the process was
supervised by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrant).
Endeavor was made to cover the specially abled persons, elders above the age of 80 years so as to mark them on Electoral Rolls. The weaker and vulnerable sections including nomads, women and third gender were given sufficient attention.