Poll management fully computerised

PUNE, Aug 25: Living upto its name as a cyber-city, Pune is going all out to ensure that the elections are conducted without any kind of ...

PUNE, Aug 25: Living upto its name as a cyber-city, Pune is going all out to ensure that the elections are conducted without any kind of hiccups, especially of the paperwork variety. For the first time, the entire election process has been totally computerised. As a result, information on all the three Lok Sabha segments and the 18 Assembly constituencies will be available at the flick of a button.

Unlike the previous elections where computers were used to a limited extent, District Collector Vijay Kumar Gautam has created a fully computerised network to oversee the entire election process. As a result, on-line connectivity is available right from filing the nominations to feeding information on the campaign itself. The District Collectorate here has opened a Candidate Facilitation Centre for the convenience of the prospective candidates. Around 200 employees have been working during the last 20 days on the creation of a database.

During the last elections, the extensive paperwork would usually see some incorrect information on candidates or even polling stations. For instance, the names of candidates would sometimes be filled incorrectly or the code numbers of the polling stations would get mixed up. This usually created a problem during the scrutiny process.

The collectorate this time, has taken a step further and has created an extensive data-base on the 5,000 employees. This, according to Gautam would make the task of the officials easy when quick decisions were required to be taken to depute returning officers to any particular assembly constituency. Information is available on terminals right from the grades of the employees with even minor administrative details of leave taken available easily. 8220;We can therefore quickly select the officers for such tasks,8221; he said.

That is not all. The collectorate has, for the first time, computerised even the vehicle management for the election period. This is expected to come in handy in the 18 Assembly segments, especially in places such as Baramati and Khed where certain areas are quite far off from civilisation and are sometimes accessible by launch. Since the elections are slated during the monsoon period, care has been taken to reorganise some of the routes.

The collectorate has also prepared digital maps of the Lok Sabha constituencies, assemblies, talukas and districts to smoothen the administrative process. Hence officials can now take stock of the situation in case of either rains or even land-slides and resort to a contingency plan. Information is also available on number of ballot boxes to be used in polling stations. The collectorate is making extensive use of the Geographical Information System8217; GIS during these elections.

Mahindra British Telecom MBT had assisted the collectorate in formulating the GIS. The computerised system was shown to the nine central observers today.