CSR: An App To Conduct Fair Lok Sabha Elections by ECI
The election commission of India announced that the 2019 general elections will be held in 7 phases. The elections will be held from April 11th to May 19th. The results of this election will form the 17th Lok Sabha.
It is not a piece of classified information that several power-hungry politicians engage in various malpractices such as offering money, gifts and jobs during the election season and break the Model Code of Conduct in order to gain more votes. During this time, the ECI is obligated to ensure that a fair electoral process is conducted in every region.
However, only a few thousand people cannot realistically monitor 1.3 billion people to catch a foul play. Also, the structural lack in the system and hooliganism of the political parties makes it difficult for people to report malpractice to the ECI fearlessly and accurately.
In order to tackle the situation more accurately, the ECI has launched a mobile app called cVIGIL aka Vigilant Citizen. Through the cVIGIL app, ECI aims to highlight the important role citizens can play in the conduct of free and fair elections by being more proactive and responsible.
The app offers its users a fast-track complaint and redressal option. It directly connects a user with the District Control Room, Returning Officer, and Field Unit (Flying Squads)/Static Surveillance Teams, thus creating a rapid and accurate reporting, action and monitoring system. This way, a user can immediately lodge a complaint through the app with a photo or video proof of malpractice anonymously.
The app is compatible with Android smartphones with Jellybean or above operating systems, with a camera, GPS access and internet connection. It can be only used in the states where elections are being held. In order to avoid constant complaints from the same spot, the system of the app forces a delay of 5 minutes between successive complaints by the same person. The app does not allow a user to upload pictures that are pre-clicked. It also does not allow a user to save the image in the photo gallery that they have clicked from the app.
In conclusion, while going to vote, if a citizen comes across a suspicious situation, they can use the app to click a picture or a 2-minute video of the activity violating the MCC and describe it shortly before registering a complaint. The GID information captured with the complaint will automatically flag it to the concerned District Control Room, which will then ask the flying squads to reach the spot within minutes.
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The CSR Journal Team
