READ ALSO:

PATNA: The Election Commission (EC) went tech-savvy this time to ensure smooth conduct of mega Bihar polls. While the poll panel used three new software – Suvidha, Samadhan and Sugam – to facilitate campaigning, public grievance redressal and vehicle management, several existing technologies were upgraded to aid the poll process.“One of the major complaints by political parties was that they had to run from pillar to post for campaigning related approvals. Since the candidates were to get only about 14 days for proper electioneering, we introduced ‘Suvidha’, a single window system for all election related authorisations,” additional chief electoral officer (CEO) of Bihar R Lakshmanan said.More than 47,800 applications were processed under Suvidha software , 99% of which were disposed within the timeframe of 24 hours. A maximum of 56.6% approvals were related to vehicles while over 21% application were for venue and loudspeaker approvals.In the form of ‘Samadhan’, a robust public grievance redressal system was put in place by the commission. All complaints, whether made in person, online, through mobile app or helplines, were put under Samadhan and a complaint ID was SMSed to the applicant to track its status. “Of the 7,452 complaints received, 7,316 were disposed of till November 5,” he added.CEO Ajay V Nayak said gone are the days when people were apprehensive of giving their vehicle for poll duty and “officials had to run a few kilometres to catch hold of them.” “Thanks to Sugam, an end-to-end vehicle management software, about 10-15% vehicles had been volunteered by transporters this time. The owner can now track their vehicle whenever they want. The compensation is also calculated by the software and in most cases reimbursed at the time of vehicle release,” Lakshmanan said. “Payment of over 98% vehicles used in the first two phases has already been made. The remaining will be cleared in the next 15-20 days,” he added.Besides Suvidha, Samadhan and Sugam, Elecon (Election confidential) helped in basic election management while Electoral Roll Management Software helped in addition/deletion/upgradation of rolls.The EC in collaboration with telecom companies sent more than than 25 crore SMSes (awareness messages) to voters during the polls. About 1.8 crore e-voter slips were also sent to electors whose mobile numbers were registered with the commission.Android app ‘Matdata’ helped in locating booth and serial numbers to voters.Android based app ‘Matdan’ helped the commission with poll-day monitoring. “Photos of voters were clicked using digital-cams at 10 polling stations in every constituency. It was a pilot initiative for statistical analysis and may be scaled up in coming elections,” Lakshmanan told TOI.Bihar specific counting software ‘e-counting’ will help poll panel on November 8 in real time compilation of round wise data. The app was also used in 2014 Lok Sabha election.At 3,236 polling stations, live webcasting was arranged for using separate bandwidths. “One remarkable thing was that of the 1,500-odd complaints received on the polling days, none was from a booth where live-webcast was done. Hence, we are seeing it as deterrence in any polling irregularities,” he said. Almost all technical work was outsourced to National Informatics Centre and a state level technology agency.