Jammu, April 18: With just a day left for the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections to be held on April 19, a command and control centre has been set up by the Chief Electoral Office (CEO), Jammu and Kashmir, to monitor election-related activities all around J-K, aiming to conduct free and fair elections.
The link of all the CCTV cameras of Jammu Smart City and Srinagar Smart City, National Highway, toll plazas, Police Control Room Jammu, and Srinagar, Excise and Railways has been linked to this Command and Control centre.
The Election Commission team is keeping a tight vigil over election activities through this Command and Control Centre, aiming to conduct free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Pandurang K Pole on Thursday said that to monitor all the activities during the elections, technology is being used.
“Tomorrow, the first phase of elections will be held from 7am to 6 pm. All the arrangements have been done. There are a total of 11629 polling stations in the Union Territory. Around 87 lakhs there are voters,” Pole said.
When asked about the special arrangements made for the Lok Sabha elections, he said that “technology is also being used to monitor all the activities during the elections so a Command and Control Centre has been established that gets feeds from all important destinations across J-K.”
In charge of the Command and Control Centre, Gauhar Fani said that all the activities are being monitored from the centre.
Voting in Udhampur will be held on April 19, in Jammu on April 26, in Anantnag-Rajouri on May 7, in Srinagar on May 13, and in Baramulla on May 20.
Earlier, there were six seats for J-K, including Ladakh. But, following the abrogation of Article 370 by the Parliament, Ladakh does not have a Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won three seats, while the National Conference won the other three seats.
This is the first election after the Supreme Court ruling last year, which upheld the Parliament’s decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two union territories. The apex court also asked the Election Commission of India to hold the next assembly elections in J&K before September 30, 2024.
