Supreme Court recently asked the Election Commission to allow Army personnel to vote like ordinary citizens at the place of their voting. File photo
Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, March 8

After the Supreme Court recently asked the Election Commission to allow Army personnel to vote like ordinary citizens at the place of their voting, the process of enrolment of nearly 7,000 jawans and officers posted at the Kapurthala Brigade started today.
The Kapurthala District Election staff today organised a camp for Kapurthala Military Station at the shopping complex of the new cantonment here. All armed personnel and their dependents posted here were provided Form No. 6 so that they could enrol themselves as general voters. The camp will continue for another day. Earlier, 15 lakh Army personnel used to exercise their franchise though postal ballots, which often used to get misplaced or reached late.

Lt Col HS Sangha (retd), an ex-serviceman who hails from Kala Sanghian village in Kapurthala and was a part of the camp, said, “While serving in the Army, we hardly got a chance to vote. But with the Supreme Court verdict coming in our favour last month and the ECI beginning to follow the directions, we hope that similar camps get started in 62 cantonments and nearly 149 military stations across the country”.
Col Sadhu Singh Ghuman (retd), an ex-serviceman based in Jalandhar, said, “While there are 15-16 units in Kapurthala, there will be nearly 63 units in Jalandhar, which is the corps headquarter. We are urging the BLOs to get nearly 17,000-18,000 Army personnel registered here. There will be a larger number of defence personnel posted at Gurdaspur, Ferozepur and Pathankot too, where local electoral officers need to enrol them to get the SC orders implemented.”

7,000 to be covered

The process to enrol 7,000 jawans and officers posted at the Kapurthala Brigade in the voters’ list began
Recently, the SC has asked the Election Commission to allow Army personnel to vote like ordinary citizens at the place of their voting
Earlier, 15 lakh Army personnel used to exercise their franchise though postal ballots, which often used to get misplaced or reached late