Election Commission observers to visit Jammu and Kashmir

NEW DELHI: The three special observers for J&K appointed by the Election Commission — former bureaucrats Noor Mohammad, A S Gill and Vinod Zutshi — will be visiting the state “at the earliest” to make an independent assessment of the security situation there and report back to EC on whether it is conducive for holding assembly polls.
Even though EC did not announce state polls in J&K along with the Lok Sabha schedule, it is keen to hold the assembly poll there at the earliest.EC sources indicated that the options include holding the assembly election either before or soon after the Lok Sabha poll is over. Of course, a lot would depend on how the security situation is in the coming days, as political parties and candidates get on with their Lok Sabha campaign.
As per the J&K government’s assessment shared earlier with EC, the security situation in the state was “volatile” and not conducive for holding polls. Sources said the state government favours polls only in October.
The three special central observers on Tuesday called on CEC Sunil Arora and election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, to discuss the brief for their assignment. Arora suggested that they visit the state at the earliest, which they accepted.
The Commission will be monitoring the situation in J&K regularly and on real-time basis and will also be taking inputs from all necessary quarters to take an early decision on assembly poll timing.
The deputy election commissioner in charge of J&K Sandeep Saxena briefed the special observers about poll preparedness in J&K. The latter would be assessing the situation in the state in consultation with political parties, chief secretary and DGP and holding video-conferencing with ground-level officers.
A S Gill has wide experience in field of security management in difficult areas. He was posted as IG, CRPF in J&K between 1995-97 and subsequently superannuated as DG, CRPF. Noor Mohammad, a former secretary to Government of India has worked for more than a decade in the field of election management as chief electoral officer of UP, deputy election commissioner in EC and as a consultant on election in Afghanistan. Vinod Zutshi, a former IAS officer, has been CEO, Rajasthan and worked with EC as deputy election commissioner for over five years.