Brisk polling, 60 percent voted till 12 pm, in J-K's Samba

Jammu, Oct 13 Like first two phases, the excited voters have thronged polling stations across Samba region of Jammu area in the third period of the urban neighbourhood bodies (ULB) races to seal the destiny of 242 candidates in 56 municipal wards.

Other than Samba, the voting is in progress in the third phase of the four-phase ULB polls in Jammu and Kashmir from 6 am covering a sum of 96 wards of eight regions 40 wards in Kashmir valley's Anantnag, Baramulla and Srinagar locale.

The voting is underway smoothly in all the four municipal committees of Samba, Ramgarh, Vijaypur and Bari-Brahmana thus far 59.39 for each penny of 31,878 electorate have practiced their establishment in the 57 surveying stations set up over the locale till 12 am, district election officer, Samba, Sushma Chauhan told.

The present polling in Samba will finish the ULB elections in all the 10 districts of Jammu region which recorded a high-voter turnout in the first two phases.

The first phase of elections covering three regions of Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri on October 8 recorded 65 per cent voter turnout while in the second stage on October 10 covering six locale of Kathua, Udhampur, Ramban, Doda, Reasi and Kishtwar saw 78.6 per cent voting.

The fourth stage on October 16 will be held in six areas of Kashmir valley.

Municipal elections are being held in four stages, covering 79 city bodies with an electorate of around 17 lakh electors. A total of 3,372 nominations have been filed for 1145 wards.

The counting of votes will be held on October 20.

Adequate security personnel were deployed for keeping up peace and eyewitnesses, zonal and sectoral officers are checking the surveys to guarantee free and fair elections, Chauhan said.

She said Ramgarh is driving the voter turnout graph in the initial six hours of surveying at 73.18 per cent pursued by Bari Brahmana (68.97 per cent), Vijaypur (65.17 per cent) and Samba (49.82 per cent).

Long lines of voters were seen outside all surveying stations and a record voter turnout is normal toward the finish of the surveying at 4 pm, authorities said.

"This is out of the blue I am casting a ballot in any decisions. It is my right to choose a representative who could work for the welfare of the people," a first time voter Monika said in the wake of making her choice at government higher secondary school at Badani in Samba.

Another first time voter, Sonika, said she dedicated her vote to strengthen the democracy in the country.

Vote is our right and we should not waste this opportunity," she said.