First live webcast of state assembly polls hugely successful

JAIPUR: The live webcast of the recently concluded assembly polls in the state was unique in many ways. Not only was the live webcast was done for the first time in the state but it helped in conducting peaceful polls. A project report of the same is being prepared for forwarding it to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
For the first time, election proceedings of sensitive booths in the just concluded polls were webcast live to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for keeping an hawk eye on them.Though such webcasts are also being done in other states but in Rajasthan, a unique process was adopted.
"So far we have been doing videography of poll proceedings in sensitive booths of the state during the polls. But videography does not serve the purpose as any anti-social wanting to disrupt the proceedings can just catch hold of the cameraman and break the camera. That would delete all evidence against him. It was with this idea that the ECI brought in the concept of live webcasting," said Pramod Agarwal, technical director, office of the CEO.
While other states have been using cameras installed on laptops for catching pictures, in Rajasthan, tablets mounted on walls for catching live pictures from more than 1,000 booths were used for the first time. "These Android tablets were mounted on walls in such a way so that its 2MP camera covers the entire booth without prying into the EVMs. The tablets were also installed with a special application that captured pictures live and streamed them when internet was available but in the event the connection was down, the tablets would store the data in its hard disk and stream them when the connections resumed," Agarwal said.
All the webcasts were monitored from the CEO's office and any anomaly was promptly picked up and rectified. "We captured a fight that had broken out in a booth at Kishangarh and got back to the returning officer there who soon intervened and resolved the issue. The entire process took less than 15 minutes. Then again, a police woman had got inside a booth in Jaipur and we caught her. She was asked to immediately step out," Agarwal said.
In order to ensure smooth streaming, the IT department prior to the election asked all internet service providers (ISPs) in these regions to provide adequate bandwidths while all discoms were asked to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
Enthused by the results, the department has already embarked on preparations for the Lok Sabha polls and asked ISPs for internet connectivity even in rural areas if possible so that these areas could also be monitored live. The department is currently studying feedbacks from all the booths so that Lok Sabha polls can be better monitored through such webcasting.