Much to the relief of about 16 lakh families affected by the September floods in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission assured the Supreme Court that the model code of conduct would not hamper relief work in the poll-bound State. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu acknowledged the Commission’s decision to transcend the strict borders of its poll code and treat the situation as a “human problem.”
The floods had left a trail of disaster spread across 21 districts, destroyed 5,794 villages, leaving 700 more submerged and displaced 15.29 lakh families. In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had pulled up the State government and political parties for not putting the requirements of the victims first and asked the Centre to postpone the elections.
The court had said it could not order the State government to distribute relief to victims while the poll code was in place. But on second thoughts, the Bench asked whether the EC could in anyway relax the code of conduct.
“All relief work and enabling administrative work can be undertaken by the government,” EC’s counsel informed the court.
