Srinagar
Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday asked the deputy commissioners to generate awareness among people about the importance of the upcoming elections.
Malik said the elections to the urban local bodies and panchayats had nothing to do with Articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution but they were a process to strengthen the grassroots-level democracy and holistic development of towns and villages.

“Ensure free and fair poll because of past mistakes people have always doubted the electoral process in J&K,” Malik told the deputy commissioners after inaugurating a one-day conference of DCs and senior superintendents of police at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre here.
He advised the DCs and SSPs to ensure adequate security cover to the candidates and to ensure that elections were conducted in a free and fair manner.

“I am getting a lot of complaints of police high-handedness. I have already conveyed it to the Director General of Police and I am telling you again here to ensure that people are not put to inconvenience,” said an official while quoting Malik.

The Governor advised the police officers to take care of public sensitivities while dealing with law and order issues and ensure that minimum inconvenience was caused to people during their operations, said an official statement.

He emphasised the high responsibilities associated with the office of deputy commissioners and SSPs in maintaining law and order, delivering public welfare services and ensuring holistic development of the districts. He stressed ensuring efficient, transparent and accountable governance with utmost regard to public sentiments.

He stressed the importance of strengthening the grievance redressal mechanism by the district administrations and urged all DCs to mark one day in a week exclusively for hearing grievances followed by their early disposal.

Malik advised the DCs to give due attention to strengthening the healthcare delivery system and urged them to make optimum utilisation of available human resources.