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EC may look into Centre's package for Pandits

"The Commission has been told by the home affairs ministry that it's an old package. We may look into it on Monday," a senior Election Commission official told reporters in New Delhi on Saturday.

The commission was responding to a comment made by Omar Abdullah, Union minister of state for external affairs, that it should probe the Centre's announcement of the package at a time when the model code of conduct was in force.

Minister of State for Home I D Swami had told reporters earlier that the Centre had decided on a package for Kashmiri migrants, offering over Rs 700,000 per family for resettlement in the valley.

The package was refused by the migrant community, which termed it an "insult".

Pramod Jain, chief electoral officer of Jammu & Kashmir, said in Srinagar that the package does not come under the purview of code of conduct.

He said such packages were periodically being released since the last two and a half years with the sole objective of providing relief to migrant communities on humanitarian grounds.

Briefing reporters about the measures taken for the smooth conduct of polls, Jain said the government order according the status of financial commissioner to two senior civil servants does not violate the model code of conduct. "The order does not involve any sort of transfer and has not affected the seniority of the cadre," he added.

Jain said the demonstration of electronic voting machines had been taken up expeditiously to cover all villages in the 87 constituencies in the state. He said 330 demonstration centres, including mobile squads, had been set up for the purpose.

Jain said as many as 631,000 voter photo identity cards had been distributed to the electorate and nearly 250,000 cards were being processed.

He said measures were being taken to provide adequate security to voters so that they could exercise their franchise freely.

PTI

Jammu and Kashmir Elections 2002: The complete coverage

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