The Election Commission told the Supreme Court on Friday that Model Code of Conduct in poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir will not affect ongoing relief and rehabilitation work for flood victims by State and Central agencies.
Appearing before the apex court in a bunch of PIls related to monitoring of flood relief operations, the EC produced a set of communications exchanged between Cabinet Secretary, Chief Secretary and Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir to clarify that relief and rehabilitation work can go on “unhindered”.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice Hl Dattu had on the previous date of hearing wished to know from EC if concession could be made to permit relief and rehabilitation undertaken by State and Central Government. Ending the issue following assurance from EC, the Bench fixed the matter for dealing with other aspects of the case on November 14. The Bench even asked the Centre to apprise them of the stand of State Government to demand Rs44,000 crore additionally for relief and rehabilitation work.
Meanwhile, a State political party by the name Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference (ANC) approached the Supreme Court for postponement of Assembly polls citing the “precarious” situation in the State due to floods that had displaced millions of residents in the State.
The matter was mentioned before a Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and SA Bobde which posted it before the Chief Justice to be heard along with the other matters being heard by it. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan who appeared for ANC said that the concern was over “relief and rehabilitation” which was getting obstructed due to the polls. It painted a grim picture to suggest that with eight million voters affected by the floods and 390 villages still submerged, it was hard to expect a “free and fair” poll.
“What concerns this court the most is the rehabilitation issue,” the Bench said, preferring the matter to go before the Chief Justice headed Bench.