The Deputy Commissioner of Jammu on Tuesday sent out an order authorising all tehsildars(revenue officials) to issue certificates of residence to anyone who has lived in the district for more than one year. The order said the decision was taken to ensure that no eligible voter is left for registration in the ongoing special summary revision of electoral rolls.
This is the first time that the electoral revision is being done after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
According to the order, any document like the Aadhar Card, water/electricity/gas connection, bank passbooks, passport, registered land deeds, etc., can be used as proof of residence.
The order added that the special summary revision is meant for registration of new voters and the deletion, correction, and transposition of voters who have migrated or died since the last summary revision was held in Jammu and Kashmir.
The directive was met with backlash as political parties opposed the order.Reacting to the order, the official Twitter handle of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) wrote that the party opposes the government’s move. It further added that the BJP is “scared of the elections and knows it will lose badly”.
The issue first surfaced in August when the then chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar said Jammu and Kashmir is likely to get around 25 lakh additional voters, including outsiders, after the special summary revision of electoral rolls.Almost all political parties except the BJP strongly opposed the inclusion of non-locals as voters and took to the streets to protest.
However, the administration later clarified that”this revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the increase in numbers will be of the voters who have attained the age of 18 years as of October 1, 2022, or earlier”.