Srinagar, Oct 31: Filing of nominations for the first phase of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections comes to an end today.

Polling will be held on November 17 in 10 constituencies. The date of scrutiny is November 1 and last date for withdrawal of candidature is November 3.

Meanwhile, the Centre has dispatched 70 companies of para-military forces for ensuring security during the seven-phase elections in the State.

Security officials said that the Centre has so far sent 70 out of 425 sanctioned companies for ensuring security for polls during first phase of polling on November 17.

The State Government had demanded for 625 companies of security forces for poll duty but due to elections in other five states only 452 were sanctioned.

Drawn from the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Special Services Bureau (SSB), the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Rapid Action Force (RAF), the companies will have strength of 60 each. They will be sent to Poonch, Rajouri and Bandipora areas for poll duty.

There are 8109 polling stations in the state and they would be guarded as per their specifications of sensitive and hyper-sensitive nature.

Three-tier security will be provided at sensitive places like venues of election rallies and all candidates will get security in the Kashmir valley and troubled areas of Jammu region.

The seven-phase assembly polls are expected to draw over 65 lakh voters at 8,000 polling stations in the state. (ANI)