Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar today convened a meeting with the representatives of various political parties regarding adherence of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) guidelines and their concerns related to Urban Local Body polls.The DC informed that the Model Code of Conduct has came into force and asked the candidates and political parties to follow its guidelines. No violation of MCC will be allowed at any stage of election process, he affirmed.No party or candidate shall indulge in any activity which may create communal hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic, the DC said, adding that, there shall be no appeal on caste and community basis for securing votes.The DC asked the representatives to aware the people about elections procedure and EVM machines which are going to be used for the first time in ULB polls, so that people in huge number come out to cast their vote.
He assured them that foolproof security arrangements for the candidates and voters will be put in place to ensure smooth elections while exercise is on to identify sensitive and hyper sensitive polling stations.Reiterating the election process, the DC further informed them that the nominations can be filled till September 25 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on September 26, while candidature can be withdrawn by September 28.Voting will take place on October 08, 2018 with polling hours from 7 am to 2 pm and state-wide counting of votes will be held on October 20, he added.The meeting was attended by ADC Kanta Devi, Joint Commissioner JMC Pardeep Singh, Deputy District Election Officer, Ahmed Zaffar Banday besides other concerned officers and representatives of several political parties.