5 things/ Technology in elections
NITIN KHADE, IAS, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Assam, on use of technology for free, fair and safe elections.
1. One-stop for all data
ENCORE, or Enabling Communications on Real-time Environment, is a one-stop app of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is being utilised for smooth conduct of the election. All data related to candidate nomination, scrutiny, affidavit, permission, expenditure monitoring, voter turnout, counting and result is added as feeds into the portal, which can be accessed by all officials engaged in the process.
2. Suvidha for contesting candidates
To ease the system of filing nominations and details of permission required, Suvidha app has been developed by the ECI. This app allows the contesting candidates to view the status of their nominations and permissions filed. Out of total 13,588 requests so far, 12,850 have been accepted.
3. Aiding vigilant citizens
Developed by the ECI, the cVigil app directly involves the electors by enabling them to report violations of the Model Code of Conduct and expenditure by allowing live photo or video with auto-location capture. The citizen is informed about the status within 100 minutes of filing of the report. So far, 1,248 cases have been registered and 886 cases have been examined, acted upon and disposed.
4. Location tracker
Ele-Traces or Election Tracking Enabled System, developed by the NIC, is a location tracker application through Geographic Information System (GIS). Through this app, efficient GIS maps are customised according to the Legislative Assembly Constituencies. All the Sector and Zonal Officers and vehicles, too, can be tracked through Ele-Traces.
5. Learning Management System
The LMS portal has been designed and developed by the office of the CEO, Assam, in partnership with the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) for providing online learning materials to the polling personnel as ready reference. Trained personnel can assess their capacities and understanding. e-Certificates can be downloaded by the personnel completing the assessment satisfactorily. A total of 1,62,643 personnel have been assessed on LMS in connection with the ongoing elections.
(As told to Sushmita Goswami)
