The Jammu administration has for the first time authorised its revenue officials to issue “certificates of residence” to non-locals living in the area for more than a year to facilitate their entry into the voting list.

The authorisation makes Jammu — considered along with Udhampur, Kathua and Samba as the heartland of the Dogras — the first district in the fledgling Union Territory to formally start giving voting rights to outsiders.

It has triggered opposition and prompted Kashmir politicians to caution the Dogras, who are Hindus, that their identity would be the first to come under assault.

In an order that stands out in the wake of the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019, Jammu deputy commissioner Anvy Lavasa directed tehsildars on Tuesday to issue such certificates to non-locals residing in Jammu district to facilitate their entry in the ongoing special summary revision of electoral rolls.

The Dogras had cheered the 2019 cancellation of special status that had given exclusive rights to locals over land and jobs. But many members of the community have since expressed fears that their identity has come under threat.

The order on certificates of residence came days after political parties announced a 14-member committee, which includes some senior Kashmiri and Dogra leaders, to chalk out a strategy to fight against the move to give voting rights to outsiders. Leaders from the Congress, Shiv Sena, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party and the Dogra Sadar Sabha are part of the committee.

In August, Jammu and Kashmir’s top election officer Hirdesh Kumar Singh had triggered a row when he said the Union Territory might witness an addition of nearly 25 lakh voters, including non-local labourers, security forces personnel, students and businessmen ordinarily residing there.

Following protests, the administration had tried to allay the fears by saying most of the additions would be local first-time voters but did not deny that outsiders too would find a place in the poll rolls.

The fresh order now seems to have settled the issue and other districts are likely to follow.

The order referred to “some eligible voters facing hardships in registration as voters for non-availability of required documents”.

“Keeping in view the urgency involved in the matter and to ensure that no eligible voter is left for registration during the Special Summary Revision, 2022, in district Jammu, all Tehsildars are authorised to issue certificate of residence after conducting necessary field verifications, to the person residing in district Jammu for more than one year, for the purpose,” the deputy commissioner said in her order.

Lavasa quoted the guidelines of the Election Commission of India for registration of eligible voters and said Aadhaar card, water/electricity/gas connection for one year, and registered rent/lease deed were among the documents that could be accepted as proof of residence. In case none of the documents is available, a “field verification is a must”.

“As for example, categories like homeless Indian citizens who are otherwise eligible to become electors but do not possess any documentary proof of ordinary residence, electoral registration officers shall designate an officer for field verification,” the order said.

It triggered outrage. The “latest order for registration of new voters makes it clear that GOIs colonial settler project has been initiated in Jammu. They will bear the first blow to Dogra culture, identity, employment and business,” People’s Democratic Party leader and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.

Many in Kashmir believe that militancy would be the biggest hurdle for outsiders to get voting rights in the Valley but there would be no such problem in the Dogra-majority districts of Jammu.

Several prominent Dogra voices criticised the order. “Struggling to understand the wisdom behind this order. When border dist of #Jammu has been calling out the illegal & very dangerous settling of Rohingyas, the first thing should have been to identify & evaluate their numbers, mechanisms & loopholes being exploited,” Manu Khajuria, a prominent pro-Dogra voice, wrote on Twitter.

The National Conference said the government was going ahead with its plan to add 25 lakh non-local voters in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We will continue to oppose this move. The BJP is scared of the elections and knows it will lose badly. People of J&K must defeat these conspiracies at the ballot box,” an NC spokesperson said.

Former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is from Jammu, said “social tensions will increase a lot” if outsiders were given voting rights. “There was always opposition to it and there will always be opposition,” Azad, who recently quit the Congress, said.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina hailed the order and accused parties like the Congress, NC and the PDP of instigating people against what he said were rights given by the Constitution to all Indians.