Jammu, August 20
Voter lists in Urdu for the coming Assembly elections have become a problem for the youth, particularly in Jammu region.

Urdu being the official language in Jammu and Kashmir, most of the electoral work has been done in the Urdu script.

However, Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur districts, being Dogri-speaking areas, the new generation of voters is Urdu illiterate. Although election officers claim that the Hindi version of the voter lists has been printed for three of the 14 districts, on the ground these are not available in any of the poll offices so far. Fresh enrolment forms are also in Urdu.

In the other 11 districts, including Leh and Kargil of the frontier region of Ladakh, Urdu-reading people are a majority.

Political parties complain that electoral rolls have not been revised since 1988 because of terrorism, despite the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. New voters have been included in the supplementary lists issued from time to time and the names of those who died or have migrated have not been deleted. The Urdu electoral rolls have reportedly been got printed at Lucknow and Kanpur.

There is an unending stream of people in the election offices seeking photo-identity cards. More than 45,000 applications in Srinagar city and 30,000 in Jammu have been submitted for the identity cards. There is much enthusiasm for the cards in district towns and border areas.

Doubts are being expressed about the authenticity of the electoral rolls in view of the 9.10 per cent increase in the number of electorate in the state during the past one year. There has been an abnormal increase of 18 per cent as compared to the Assembly elections in 1996.

It is being pointed out that an increase of 4,67,304 electorate within a year is not possible. A total number of 47,48,450 voters were registered during the 1996 Assembly elections. The figure went up to 51,33,476 in January last and has now shot up to 56,00,786. More and more people are filling the forms to get themselves enrolled.

The abnormal increase in the number of voters in the Jammu region is causing concern among the Opposition parties. As many as 20 of the 37 Assembly segments of the Jammu region have witnessed a phenomenal growth of as high as 26 per cent in the number of electorate.

On the other hand, the increase in the Kashmir valley is of the order of only 4.93 per cent.