SHILLONG, MAR 31: ‘Your polling station at your finger tip’ – a Short Message Service (SMS) introduced by the Election Commission of India for the convenience of the electorates during the forthcoming April 9-Lok Sabha polls was launched by the Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Prashant Naik.
“Through this mobile service, it will enable the voters to know the details of their polling stations just simply by sending their electors photo identity card (EPIC) number to 98560-66666,” Naik told reporters on Monday.
The aim of this SMS facility is to ensure active participation of the electorates during polls.
Naik informed that after sending, the voters will receive the details such as the location of their polling station and their serial number in the electoral rolls.
Naik, however, said that in case a voter fails to receive any response after sending his or her EPIC number via SMS, they should immediately check up with their respective deputy commissioner’s offices.
According to Naik, there are few instances that though a voter may have EPIC card but his name does not figure in the electoral rolls. In this case, the voter can fill up the forms immediately, he added.
Informing that producing of the EPIC card is a must, Naik said that the department has also directed all Block Level Officers (BLOs) to ensure that voters’ slips for the polls are distributed before March 6.
Naik said, “We urged the public to complaint in case if they fail to receive the slips issued by election department.” –By Our Reporter
Good one Mr Naik
This does not entertain me as I had already decided not to cast my vote unless VVPAT EVMs are used!
Evan, please let me know of WPAT EVMs. I am ignorant of this machine.
A Software Powerhouse ?
Yesterday , when I went to polling booth , there was a chaos , with a number of people complaining that their names were missing from the Electoral Rolls ( Voter Lists )
As per news-reports , in Mumbai alone , some 50,000 people returned home without casting their votes – including Deepak Parekh ! Altogether , names of some 15 lakh voters ( out of a total of 98 lakh ) were missing !
Then there are some 300 million people who will simply won’t walk down to the nearest polling booths , and wait for 1 hour to cast their votes ( – assuming that some 40 % of the 814 million eligible voters do not exercise their right to vote )
WHY ?
Going out to vote is becoming a big hassle
COULD IT BE OTHERWISE ?
Sure , if Central Government and the Election Commission care to implement my suggestion for developing a mobile App for voting . I called it , VotesApp
see .. hemenparekh.in/2013/08/votesapp.html
Or , just type in Google , ” VotesApp ”
HOW WILL IT HELP ?
> No need for 930,000 polling booths / EVMs / Ink / Papers etc
Every voter’s own mobile becomes a miniature EVM !
Any registered Voter can vote from anywhere in the World !
> Nor any need to deploy 1,100,000 people to conduct the polls
> No need for millions of Police / Military personnel
> No need for months of advance preparations, across entire country
> Voting can be completed in just ONE day – instead of over 6 weeks –
and results can be declared next day !
> Voting could be 95 % or more !
> No worry for booth-capture
> No bogus voting ( Bio-metric ID from built-in camera )
> No duplicate voting ( Self-destruct after single usage )
> No worry for any terrorist attacks
> Enormous saving of time for Voters
> No need to declare a public holiday – costing thousands of crores
worth of production
> Central Government will save, at least , Rs 2,000 Crores .
If business-friendly BJP government comes to power , it would not
hesitate to earn Rs 20,000 crores , by enabling 15 million Indian
businesses to advertise to 814 million voters , thru this mobile VotesApp –
sharply targeting by Gender / Age / Marital Status / City / Street /
Education / Income Tax paid / Employed or Jobless ..etc
> No need for Central Government to stop taking even routine decisions
If a tiny country like Estonia ( population 1.6 million ) can elect its Members of Parliament thru a VotesApp type mobile App , why can’t we ?
Already 900+ million Indians have mobiles – all of which , will soon become Smart Phones
And we call our country , a ” Software Powerhouse ” !
* hemen parekh ( 25 April 2014 / Mumbai )