Andhra Pradesh: Election Commission launches ‘cVIGIL’ to empower citizens

GUNTUR

: To empower citizens to curb poll malpractices, the Election Commission has launched an app,

cVIGIL

, which helps people to lodge complaints with the EC.


Voters can upload pictures or videos of irregularities and violations through cVIGIL. The app will provide time stamped proof of the model code of conduct and expenditure violation. “The combination of time-stamping, live photo with auto location can be fairly relied upon by the

election

machinery to navigate to the right spot and take action,” said

Guntur district

collector Kona Sasidhar.

He said the GIS-based dashboard will help authorities to ignore frivolous and hoaxes. He said the app would reduce workload on the election machinery.

This the first time the Election Commission has released an app to empower voters and make them part of the enforcement against malpractices. In the absence of such tools, public are wary of lodging complaints against influential candidates or their henchmen. “Money distribution is one of the serious crimes that is going unchecked in spite of raids and inspections. We are ready to crack the whip within no time upon the receipt of complaint during the coming elections,” said Sasidhar.

He appealed to people to make use of the app and bring all kinds of violations to their notice. In fact, delay in reporting violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is often helping culprits escape detection from the EC flying squads.

“Besides, lack of any documented, untampered evidence in the form of pictures or videos is a major hurdle in establishing the veracity of a complaint ex-post facto,” he said. He said it was found that a significant percentage of complaints received by district election authorities were false or inaccurate, which led to waste of time of field units.

The cVIGIL is expected to create a fast-track complaint reception and redressal system. cVIGIL stands for Vigilant Citizen and emphasizes the proactive and responsible role citizens can play in the conduct of free and fair elections.

Citizens are also encouraged to use the ECI website for lodging other complaints or call the National Contact Centre at 1800111950 or State Contact Centre at 1950 for other complaints.