A first: 17 all-woman booths for Udhampur constituency

Sanjay Pathak

Kathua, April 12

In a first, all 17 Assembly segments of the Udhampur-Doda parliamentary constituency will get a all-woman polling booth each. The seat is going to the polls on April 18.

The step is being taken to ensure the maximum participation of women in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

“One Sakhi Matdan Kendra will be established in each Assembly segment. Women will be seen performing the roles of presiding officer, P1, P2 and P3,” said Vivek Puri, Assistant Returning Officer (ARO).

As per the Election Commission guidelines, these ‘Sakhi Matdan Kendras’ will be taken care of exclusively by women, including police, election officers and other employees, but in view of the sensitive security scenario, no final call has been taken regarding the posting of the woman police officers at these booths.

Posted as lecturers at Girls Higher Secondary School, Kathua, Pushpinder Kour, Rajdeep Kour and Rekha Sharma along with Rashim Salotra from Boys Higher Secondary School have volunteered for the election duty in Kathua town.

“Women are outmatching men in almost every field and we don’t want to be left behind in taking the responsibilities. So, we happily volunteered for this election job,” the lecturers said.

This group of women will be posted at the polling station to be established in Ward No. 1 near the SSP office in Kathua.

Hailing the EC move, Mahila Adhikar Sangathan chief Santosh Khajuria said it was a late but good initiative. “Women constitute almost half of the country’s population. They are shouldering every responsibility and are not lagging behind in any sector. This time, the woman employees will be posted in towns but in future, they should be given the responsibility to serve in peripheries as well.”

An election officer said in view of the security scenario, all 17 ‘Sakhi Matdan Kendras’ would be established in the towns. The posting of an employee in his/her native town violates the model code of conduct guidelines, the official said.

However, the ARO said they had already got the EC nod to post the woman employees in their native towns.