Anantnag : The District Election Officer (DEO) Anantnag, Mohammad Younis Malik, Saturday said all the requisite arrangements have been put in place to ensure free, fair and transparent elections for the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) in the district.Addressing media persons, the DEO said election related preparations, foolproof security arrangements, transport and communication plan is well in place for the elections.Anantnag district consists of 139 wards having nine Municipal Committees and one Municipal Council. Total electorate for Urban Local Bodies Elections is 101,423. Polling for phase-I shall take place on October 08, 2018 from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm.The elections are being conducted in four phases in district Anantnag. Under Phase-I MC Achabal, Kokernag and Qazigund, consisting of 28 wards having 10555 electorates are entitled for exercising their franchise. Under Phase-II the elections will be conducted for the Municipal Council Anantnag and 25 wards having 47923 electorates and Municipal Committee Bijbehara consisting 17 wards having a total urban electorate of 12044 electors.Under phase-III, the Municipal Committees of Mattan, Pahalgam, Aishmuqam and Seer Hamdan having 52 wards with an urban electorate of 20,127 will go to polls. Similarly, under the 4th and final phase the MC Dooru-Verinag having 17 wards with an urban electorate of 10744 will be entitled for exercising their franchise.He said by these elections the institutions of local self-governance will be strengthened resulting in their inclusion in the developmental process at grass root level.