Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 19: In a first of its kind major initiative, the Election Commission of India has issued directions for web-casting of counting centres in Jammu and Kashmir during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in order to keep hawk’s eye on each and every activity. Even all the polling stations are being videographed to ensure basic minimum facilities to the electorates for hassle free voting.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Election Commission of India has directed that all the counting centres and strong rooms to be established during the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir should be web-cast so that every activity remains under the scanner not only at different levels in the Commission but also at the level of District Electoral Officers.
“Even all the citizens would be able to get live video of any of the strong room or counting centre by just clicking on a link to be given on the websites of Election Commission of India and Chief Electoral Officer of J&K”, sources said while disclosing that such an initiative was never taken in the past elections.
They informed that all the Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) to be installed in the strong rooms and counting centres would have inbuilt internet and recording facility, which will make the web-casting mechanism an effective tool for maintaining hawk’s eye without manpower deployment.
“Rather than doing a post-mortem of the events collected through CCTVs, the Election Commission of India, Chief Electoral Officer of J&K and District Election Officers would be able to keep a constant track of all the proceedings”, sources said, adding “the web-casting facility would also help the Election Commission of India, Chief Electoral Officer of the State and all the District Election Officers to check the veracity of the complaints regarding the counting exercise and connected issues’.
In response to a question, sources said that entire expenditure on the web-casting of the strong rooms and counting centers would be borne by the Election Commission of India. “At present the directions regarding web-casting of strong rooms and counting centres are only applicable for the Lok Sabha elections but the possibility of the same being used in the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir cannot be ruled out”, sources added.
The Election Commission has also decided to ensure basic minimum facilities to the electorates and in this regard directions have been issued to the DEOs of the State to form territorial teams/squads to visit each and every polling station location and prepare documentation on the condition of polling station and existing amenities.
“During videography the points like access/entry of the polling station locations, surrounding of the polling stations and availability/location of civic amenities like drinking water, toilets, electricity, ramp etc would be covered”, sources said, adding “the DEOs have also been asked to initiate remedial measures on the basis of physical verification reports and send an Action Taken Report to the CEO at the earliest.
Sources disclosed that in order to check use of money and liquor in the elections, Election Expenditure Observers, Assistant Expenditure Officers (officers of Income Tax, Excise, Accountant General), video surveillance teams and video viewing teams are being deployed in adequate number.
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