cVigil: Election Commission launches app to report model code violations

The Election Commission of India has launched Cvigil mobile application for citizens to report any violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during elections. The app aims at empowering people across the country to share evidence of malpractice by political parties, their candidates and activists directly with ECI. At present its beta version has been released and will be made available for use during forthcoming Assembly elections Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan.

Features of cVigil

It will allow anyone in election-bound state to report violations of MCC. By using this app, vigilant citizens can immediately report on incidents of misconduct anonymously and in real-time by clicking picture or record video of upto two minutes and uploading it on the app.
The identity of the complainant will be kept confidential and will be provided with Unique ID to track and receive the follow up updates on the mobile. The app also has inbuilt features to prevent its misuse. It will be active only in States where elections have been announced.
The app also facilitates sharing of geo-tagged photographic and video evidence without disclosing identity of sender. The uploaded information will be transmitted to control room and from there to field units or flying squads, mapped on Geographic Information System (GIS) for further action.

Background

So far, complaints about violations of MCC often were not followed instantly, leading to violators escaping detection from action squads. Besides, lack of any documented evidence in form of pictures or videos was seen as hurdle in verifying complaint. Further, absence of robust response system to quickly and accurately identify scene of occurrence of violations with help of geographical location details hampered election officers’ ability to apprehend violators. The cVigil app is expected to fill in all these gaps and create fast-track complaint reception and redressal system.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2018