Jammu, Apr 5 The Jammu and Kashmir election department has put in place a contingency plan to deal with any eventuality during the Lok Sabha polls as the state faces challenges like bad weather conditions, border shelling and militancy, the CEO said Friday.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shailendra Kumar said 70 polling stations have been identified along the LoC in villages of Poonch and Rajouri districts for relocation due to ongoing heavy shelling by Pakistan.
"We have not shifted the stations as yet, but we have identified the places where these will be shifted to," Kumar told .
"A contingency plan is put in place for the coming elections to deal with any eventuality," he said when asked about the threat of militancy and ongoing border shelling along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the state is also prone to natural calamities.
"We have a plan for each challenge. I hope everything pass off peacefully and there arises no need for the contingency plan," the CEO said.
While mountainous belt of Ladakh and parts of Kashmir and Jammu face weather challenges, border belts of Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Baramulla and Kupwara along the LoC and the International Border have high degree threat of shelling and firing by Pakistan.
South Kashmir, a highly infested militancy ridden belt, faces challenge on security front.
The CEO exuded confidence of holding free and fair elections and said elaborate security arrangements have been made in this regard.
A total of ten people, including four soldiers, have been killed and nearly 50 others injured in Rajouri and Poonch districts in Pakistan shelling since India conducted air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26.
The action was in response to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.
Jammu and Kashmir has six Lok Sabha constituencies - Jammu, Udhampur, Anantnag, Srinagar, Baramulla and Ladakh. The state will go to polls in five phases on April 11, 18, 23, 29 and May 6.
The state election department has formed 1,500 mobile and static teams, besides deploying flying squads with video cameras to ensure strict adherence of the poll code.
The Jammu and Kashmir poll panel has received over 180 complaints of alleged violations of the model code of conduct through the C-Vigil app and other modes, Kumar said.
Of the total complaints, 123 have been disposed of while the rest 59 are being looked into, Kumar said, adding over 20 employees were suspended for violating the poll code.
Out of 88 complaints received through C-Vigil and other online modes, 61 were dropped, 22 disposed of and five under examination, he added.
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