The non-governmental organisation Arappor Iyakkam has launched a mobile application providing easy access to information on contestants from all the constituencies for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly election.
The app, which can be found on Android and iOS platforms under the title ‘Arappor Iyakkam - Empowering Citizens’, has a “Know your candidate” section in Tamil and English, providing details income, assets of and criminal cases (if any) against the candidates.
Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of the organisation, said that the intention was to help citizens make an informed choice before voting for a candidate. “Moreover, independent candidates do not get a level playing field with many people not knowing the names of independents in their constituencies. In the application, we have provided constituency-wise list of contestants and their symbols,” he said.
Though the data has been compiled from the affidavits filed by candidates that are already available on Election Commission of India’s website, he said that accessing the information from there can be tedious for many. “One has to download the affidavit in pdf format that has several pages for each candidate and look for relevant details. We have made it easier,” he said.
He pointed out that only sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) are provided by the candidates in their affidavits. “We have provided the offences these sections refer to so that the public can easily understand the nature of the crime,” he said.
Over 600 volunteers from multiple locations worked on compiling the data, and designing the app to make it available before the election, he added.