Telangana Assembly elections: Polling booths to be monitored with modern tech
Hyderabad: With the Assembly elections just about 50 days away in the state, the Telangana police are developing applications to monitor the ground-level happenings during elections. The technological initiatives include live monitoring of the police personnel posted at the polling centres and also on flying squad duty.
After a series of meetings held by the top cops of the state, it was found that there were over 3,300 critical polling stations across the state, with 1,600 among them being identified as hypersensitive polling stations, where additional forces would be deployed to prevent untoward incidents during the polling on December 7.
The critical polling centres were identified based on the incidents of violation of the model code of conduct that took place during the 2014 general elections.
Additional Director General (Law and Order) Jitender said “Initiatives like developing a software to sync in the existing TS COP application is to pinpoint the personnel deployed at the polling centres and also at the critical centres. A live-tracking facility will be enabled to trace the movement of every officer so that in case of emergency, the nearest stationed officer would be directed to attend.”
Another software is being developed to generate reports from all the polling stations on an hourly basis. The reports will be updated online for the review at the state police headquarters and they would be submitted to the Election Commission, as and when required, said the Additional DG.
“Around 1,300 cases of violation of the model code of conduct were registered during the previous general elections, and have been charge-sheeted. About 12 cases of Arms Act were also registered,” said the official.
During the 2014 general elections, polling took place in as many as 29,732 stations. This time, about 32,500 have been identified so far, and over 1,000 centres may be increased as around 20 lakh voters have been added.
Social media under scanner
During the upcoming elections, the social media posts of political parties and groups in poll-bound Telangana will come under the Election Commission’s scanner for any objectionable content under the model code of conduct, said the state chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar. DGP, M. Mahender Reddy, has also offered the help of the Cyber wing in taking action in cases of violation of the code.
An agency was appointed in the state to help Mr. Kumar on social media issues and the EC at the national and the state level is in touch with companies such as Google and Facebook, which have assured cooperation in cases of violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said they would keep an eye on bulk messaging sent through social media or the traditional way with a malafide intention. Meanwhile, Cyberabad police warned that criticising politicos on social media will be punished. Warning the citizens and politicos and their aides to be careful while posting on social media and making it viral, Cyberabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar said any person who posted derogatory or defaming posts, morphed pictures and critical material would face stringent action as it would be treated as a violation of the model code of conduct.
Commissioner Sajjanar on Monday said anybody involved in posting or sharing of content or pictures against the candidates, use abusive language or spread false information to defame or degrade any person would be subjected to legal action.
