J&K to digitise old electoral rolls; First electoral roll in erstwhile state was published in 1951

Srinagar, Aug 18 : In a significant move, the office of J&K’s chief electoral office has decided to digitise electoral rolls right from 1951 when elections were held for J&K’s constituent assembly.

Documents in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) lay bare that the office of the CEO has set the ball rolling for digitisation of electoral rolls.

To begin with, the CEO’s office has floated bids for hiring of services of companies for scanning/digitization/transliteration of old electoral rolls of J&K.

As per documents, the electoral roll of 1951, 1957, 1971, 1975, 1988 including supplements upto 2001, 2008 and 2014, would be digitized.

“The office of the chief electoral officer, J&K is desirous of getting these records of immense importance, digitized by scanning and meta- tagging. This would be followed by storing the digitized version and making it readily available on the public domain,” reads the documents.

The office of chief electoral officer is looking after preparation and management of electoral rolls in J&K. The first electoral roll in Jammu & Kashmir was published in 1951 when elections were held for framing the constitution of J&K. The first Assembly election in J&K was held in 1957 under its own constitution—(KNO)