KL Report
SRINAGAR
As the Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (GPC) elections are being held in January, a meeting of various Sikh groups was held Saturday. The participants of meeting said that elections should have been held earlier as committed by Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah during a function some months back.
In a statement issued to a local news agency, CNS, All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) Chairman, Jagmohan Singh Raina said that conducting of elections on January next year is not conducive since harsh winter conditions would be there in Kashmir valley. Raina said that people should still come out and cast their votes since the elections are being held after a long gap of 10 years instead of normal gap of five years.
Raina said that elections should have been held in November or December as it would have led to better turnout during the elections. He said members of community should go for selection instead of elections. He added that candidates having religious background should be asked to be members of various GPCs.
“The voter list in the Kashmir valley is a big problem as these have not been updated. Some of the government officials are creating hurdles in the updating of electoral rolls. The community members should get themselves registered within one month. If anybody raises objection or creates hurdles then they should contact the APSCC for redressal of the grievances,” said Raina.
Raina said that repeated pleas with government of India and state government about the revision of electoral rolls of Sikh community have fallen on deaf ears. He said that local office of Census department also failed to do the needful in this regard thus pushing the members of Sikh community to the wall.
“People of the state have peculiar problems and the solution to the same has also to be on same lines. As such, members of Sikh community should not listen to the suggestions and views of outsiders since the outsiders have vested interests. People should not fall prey to the designs of the people living outside,” said Raina.
