Karnataka finds mention in CEC briefing about LS polls

BENGALURU: As the election dates were being announced for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Karnataka found itself being given specific attribution by the chief election commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora over the use of the election commission mobile application, C-Vigil, successful implementation of the same to record violations of model code of conduct.

According to Arora, the C-Vigil mobile application on Android platform will be implemented for the first time nationwide, with ordinary citizens having the access to record the violations of model code of conduct and submitting it to the ECI.

The complaints will have to be processed by the election commission officials in the state within 100 minutes and an action taken report has to be submitted within the said time to the ECI.

“This application was implemented for the first time in Karnataka during the 2018 assembly elections with as many as 28,000 complaints being registered during those elections,” said Arora.

Later, chief election officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar spoke of the application and said it was used for the assembly elections in 2018 assembly elections on a pilot basis in Bangalore district.

“We had used the application in Bengaluru during the last assembly election and had proved to be successful. The application had a simple process of recording a picture or video, uploaded by the ordinary citizen and then relayed to the control centre of the election commission. The information will then be relayed to the flying squad of the ECI, which is closest to the spot of the incident. The squad will then swing into action in this regard and submit the action taken report,” said Kumar.

Any citizen can download the application and upload a picture or video of political parties or persons who are trying to “influence” the voters ahead of elections.