TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The state election office aims to supervise the forthcoming 2014 Lok Sabha elections with a coded SMS alert system, making Goa the first state in the country to use such a system.
However, there are apprehensions that the system may not work given that most polling stations are located in remote areas with no mobile connectivity.
Joint Chief Electoral Officer Naryana Navti told media persons that the communication plan for election (COMET) proposed by the Election Commission, that aimed to create a database of cell phone numbers of government officials deployed for the elections so that the poll panel could reach them quickly, making it a high-tech SMS-based alert system, would be adopted in the state.
The system uses coded messages to collect data about officials on duty. It also helps in monitoring events down to a particular polling booth at the click of a mouse. The new system was partially used in Goa during the March 2012 assembly elections. “The system would start functioning from the day the polling party leaves headquarters,” he said.
There are 1622 polling stations in the State.
As per the system, booth level officers would have to send SMS alerts after every 30 minutes giving updates about the polling, Navti said adding Goa Electronics Ltd has prepared a software to make this operational. “This will keep us updated about polling,” he said.
According to Navti, the new system uses coded texts through cell phones to collect data about officials, scheduled events like staff reaching the polling station, conduct of mock poll, start of polling, voting percentages every two hours, number of voters in queue after voting time is over and whether the poll party reached safely at the high security electronic voting machine deposit centres.
