EC app makes life of politicians easy

Khammam: The Election Commissioner has introduced Suvidha, Sugam and Elecon, mobile apps that are designed to make the life of political parties easier.

As part of election campaign, political parties and candidates are required to obtain permissions for meetings, rallies, vehicles, loudspeakers, temporary party office, helipad and helicopter landing.

The earlier system of granting permission was based on traditional manual processing that involved obtaining consent from various authorities. This was found to be time consuming and non-transparent.

Even earlier, there was no single window system for proper monitoring, which led to complaints of delay and bias in granting of permissions. This, at times, led to allegations against the election officials.

‘Suvidha’ is a software that provides standardised forms for applying for different permissions. It also provide a checklist showing the mandatory and optional documents required for different permissions.

This makes the process simpler and transparent and also ensures that chance of rejection of applications is minimal. At the time of filing the application, the mobile number of the applicant is mandatorily collected and email on an optional basis. As soon as the application is accepted an SMS acknowledgement is sent to the applicant giving the application number, date and time of receipt. The application number can be used to track the status on the website.

Khammam district retuning officer R.V.  Karnan said, “Permission is mandatorily given or rejected within 24 hours in each case.”

Under Sugam (Vehicle Management), the application is used for management of vehicles in the elections right from the requisition to payment or release by the officials during elections. Information about the payment is sent through automated SMS. The mobile app is useful for vehicle owner to lodge complaint regarding payment as well as for verifying vehicular movement during election.

The Elecon application is used to create database of police, polling personnel, generation of command, appointment letters, sending SMS regarding deputation.

The intent of the EC is to keep meaningful engagement with all stakeholders by making its own functioning transparent.