Kashmiri Pandits face difficulty in voting

Outside the polling station in the directorate of school education at migrant camp Muthi,despite the boycott call by some Kashmiri Pandit organizations,nearly 15 voters who found their names missing from the voter list protested blocking the main road. The youth who protested burnt the effigy of Chief Election Commissioner of India and raised slogans against the Election Commission. Police had to resort to mild lathicharge to disperse them,injuring two youth. “We took four of the voters into custody. They were trying to disrupt polling and blocked the main road” said Senior Superintendent of police,Jammu,Manohar Singh.

“There are thousands of voters whose names are missing from the voter list. Actually over 29 thousand voters could have cast vote. But the government wants the migrants to fill the M-form and not more than 9 thousand voters registered for polling” said Vijay Chikan,Spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir National United Front,a Kashmiri Pandit organisation.

By 12:25 pm,out of the 2516 voters only 248 had cast their vote in the polling station at the Directorate of School Education,Muthi. “For the last 20 years we have been living away from our homes. But the vote is the only way we can seek the resolution of our problems. I have cast my vote to reject the communal forces which try to divide the people on the name of religion” said former MLC,Bhushan Lal Bhat.

“The government has only been trying to prevent the Kashmiri migrants from casting their vote. The filling up of an M-form is a very complicated process. But despite that we didn’t boycott the polls. I have voted to see that until the return of Kashmiri Pandits back to valley the candidate whom I have chosen works for the welfare of displaced community. People living within the migrant camps are facing a number of problems. There is no facility for the disposal of sewerage and things become particularly difficult during the summer” said a voter Rattan Lal Tickoo of Durga Nagar. “There is no point boycotting the polls. However government can’t always take us for a ride and it should have simplified the procedure which enables us to register for voting. There are a number of discrepancies in the voter list. In the M-form many voters specified a particular polling station at which they would have liked to cast their vote,but their names were missing from the voter list” added another voter,Ramesh Bharti.

The polling station at Government Engineering College,Canal Road,was also deserted. Only 32 votes were polled from a total of 278 votes. As in other polling stations,people here also complained that their names were missing from the voter list. ‘‘I filled the M-form and was also issued the electoral photo identity card,but despite that my name is missing from the voter list” said,Bhushan Lal,a voter. However a Kashmiri Pandit woman voter,Pinki Bhat,said that she voted to ‘end the discrimination with the Kashmiri migrants.’

“We have only been exploited. We have the highest number of problems. Since we migrated from Kashmir Valley,the employment of the Kashmiri migrants in the government services has been only negligible. Every time leaders only talk of making sure our return to Valley without seeing that whether the conditions in Valley have improved. But vote is the only way we can change our conditions. We have lost our identity and it is only the voting which can restore that,’’ she said.

Assistant Returning Officer,migrants,Harcharan Singh,said “nearly 20-25 per cent migrant voters out of the total voter strength of 9,974 voters cast their vote.”