he State administration on Tuesday ended the house detention of almost all prominent political leaders of National Conference, Congress and National Panthers Party (NPP) in Jammu region ahead of elections to the Block Development Councils (BDCs). Some prominent leaders who were under house arrest since August 5 included Devender Singh Rana, Surjit Singh Slathia, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo and Javed Rana from National Conference, former Minister Raman Bhalla from Congress and National Panthers Party (NPP) leader Harshdev Singh. All these leaders are now allowed to carry out political activities for BDC elections. This decision taken by the State administration has been conveyed to ministers through police officials. The detention was done with the attempt to prevent instigation of people. The Chief Electoral Officer, (CEO), J&K, Shailendra Kumar, has notified dates for the conduct of election of the Chairpersons of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) in the State. He announced October 1 as the date of issuance of the Gazette Notification while October 9 has been kept as the last day for making nominations. The date for the scrutiny of nominations is October 10 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 11
