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Onkar Singh in Srinagar
Journalists who had been issued passes by the Election Commission of India were in for a shock on Wednesday evening when they were informed that they would have to take a security clearance pass from the local police for covering the counting of votes on Thursday.
The scribes who came to know of the new development in time rushed to the Director, Public Relations, Narinder Singh to get the security passes.
Some of them protested that Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police A K Suri had not told them anything about the security passes when he addressed the media on October 8 after the last phase of polling.
Chief Electoral Officer P K Jain also did not know about the new requirement. "I would sort this out shortly," he told a senior officer of the department of public relations when the latter got in touch with him to know that if the media persons would need security passes.
Suri too was taken aback when told that Senior Superintendent of Police, in charge of Srinagar, R R Swain has issued new instructions.
The new guideline is likely to create confusion on Thursday when journalists reach the Sher-e-Kashmir international convention centre at Centaur hotel on the outskirts of the capital for covering the counting.
The new security requirement, however, is only applicable to the Srinagar counting centre and does not apply to other counting centres in Jammu, Doda and Kupwara, where the counting of votes would be taken up simultaneously.
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