Jammu administration on Wednesday night withdrew the notification regarding registration of all the residents who have been living in Jammu for more than a year can register as voters was criticised by the political parties.
The order issued by Deputy Commissioner Jammu Anvy Lavasa read that some elegible voters are facing hardships in registering as voters due to unavailability of the stipulated documents. To ensure no voter is left behind, Tehsildars were authorised to issue all those certificate of residence who have been living in Jammu for more than a year.
Mehbooba Mufti called it the the evil design of BJP to change voter ratio in its favour.
Ghulam Nabi Azad said social tensions would arise with the entry of outsiders in voter list.
National Conference also opposed the notification and said “The Government is going ahead with its plan to add 25 lakh non-local voters in J&K and we continue to oppose this move. BJP is scared of the elections & knows it will lose badly. People of J&K must defeat these conspiracies at the ballot box. ”
J&K people’s Conference in a tweet reacted to the notification said “The latest order by DC Jammu authorising revenue officials to issue certificate of residence to outsiders residing in Jammu for more than one year is highly suspicious aimed at enabling them to vote. This goes against the SC judgement on the issue. The onus of proving our suspicions wrong yet again lies on the ECI and the J&K administration. They must clarify if such a directive is permissible.”
However BJP defended it saying it was within people’s representation act.