PANJIM: Goa won the award for excellence in innovation at the election to the 2017 Goa Legislative Assembly. The award was received by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kunal, from President Ramnath Kovind at a function organised by Election Commission of India in Delhi on the occasion of National Voters Day.
The CEO had planned an advance calendar of activities and circulated it to all officials. It included preparing citizens for Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) usage, ethical voting with high participation, development of quality information, education, communication material in local language and dissemination through digital media and enrolment of the marginalised wanarmaare tribe. In addition, VVPAT demos were held on demand and matka gambling was stopped during the election process.
Also, North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan received the Special Award for Best Electoral Practices for Election Management. As per the citation Mohanan, who was DEO, North Goa, identified polling stations declared as Divyang Polling Station and were managed entirely by differently abled staff, including the Presiding Officer. Also, 19 Pink Polling Stations were established, and developed a unique SMS based training module for polling officials. As an outcome, voter turnout for the Divyang polling station recorded 79.54 percent, and there was a higher female voter turnout at pink polling stations.
