App to help voters keep finger on netas’ pulse

A platform has been created for the first time in India where a citizen can rate and review their political leaders through an application called National Editor Trans-forum Application (NETA) app developed by 27-year-old student Pratam Mittal, who completed his education from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. The app is available in 16 languages.

Indians will be the first in the world to get such platform where they can rate, review and write opinion about their political leaders, including MLAs and local representatives.

“I congratulate the team behind NETA app. It (trial) has done so well to educate voters, track performance via transparent ratings and help parties select candidates with a good track record. To me, this platform is nothing short of groundbreaking and it will take our democracy a notch higher,” said former President of India while addressing the audience at the launch of the app at his Delhi residence on Friday.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, former Chief Election Commissioners SY Quraishi and Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi and Union Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla were present at the launch ceremony.

An app users will have access to all information about leaders like their movable and immovable properties they own, liability and the work done during their term. The app has a section where one can raise issues and file complaint or share video with their concerned leaders.

Explaining the usefulness of the app for voters and political parties, Kejriwal said, “In a democracy like ours there are so many people who are not able to meet their representatives. Most of the time people are convinced to vote on the basis of caste and religion.

“In such background, the app will definitely help voters to find their genuine leaders. Besides, they will also come to know about the performance of their representatives. Moreover, through this app parties can also assess performance of their leaders and give tickets to most deserving ones.”

According to NETA team, the application was earlier launched on a pilot basis in Karnataka during elections where over 1.5 crore verified voters rated and reviewed their local leaders across all 543 parliamentary constituencies and 4,120 Assembly constituencies in the country, within eight months. 

Further, through this app, available in Google Play Store, one can see the rating and write opinion about their leaders. Nearly 1 lakh people have downloaded the app within hours of its launch.

App developer Mittal told The Pioneer, “These days we even go to a movie after reading review and ratings, so I thought why not have a platform where leaders can be reviewed and rated. Leaders are the one chosen by the people but most of the time they vote without knowing anything about representatives.

“Through this app one can also see the work of a new candidate and can vote him/her to make them a responsible leader. It is very easy to operate as one has to download the app and put the pin code of the area and it shows a list of politicians from different parties who contested the last Lok Sabha elections.”