The cVigil app is coming quite handy for the Election Commission (EC). It has found out that 96-98 per cent of the poll code violation reported through the app was true. The poll watchdog received over 7,300 complaints about code of conduct violations by political parties and their candidates during the ongoing Delhi Assembly election campaign so far. Of them, 6,607 complaints have been resolved within 100 minutes while the EC acted upon 6,905 complaints. This was possible due to cVigil app, launched by the EC to keep an eye on poll violation during polls. Alert residents are helping EC spot model code of conduct violations by reporting them through the cVIGIL app.
According to EC, Central district is on the top with 1884 poll violations, followed by North with 1,508. South is the only district where a least number of poll violations are reported so far. The EC had received a total of 1.24 lakh complaints of poll violation from all states and union territories on its cVIGIL app during 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Of these, 64,020 complaints, which is more than half, were registered from Kerala.
As per the data, 208 of the total 268 complaints in north-west district were found to be genuine. Of them, 179 complaints were addressed within 100 minutes. In north-east, 797 complaints of the total complaints of 836 addressed within 100 minutes and found to be genuine. The percentage of accuracy is 98 percent. In south district, of the total of 66 complaints, 52 found to be genuine. In south west, 631 complaints found to be true as against the total of 788. Similarly, 67 of the 105 complaints in east district were found to be genuine. In west district, 237 of the total of 313 complaints were found to be true.
In New Delhi, 871 poll violation complaints of received on the app. Of them 834 found to be true. Shahdara district received 394 such complaints. Of them 292 were genuine while south east district, 139 complaints was found true of the total complaints of 160 received through the app.
According to the ECI, people can download the cVIGIL app on their Android smartphones. They can send us photographs or videos of maximum two minutes duration each related to model code violation. The sender's identity will not be disclosed. As soon as a citizen reports an incident of misconduct, it is forwarded to a Flying Squad on the ground for investigation. The Flying Squads will investigate the matter, while the Returning Officer will take a decision. Once the complaint is registered, a unique ID number is generated, which allows the citizen to track his/her complaint. The status of the complaint will be shared within 100 minutes.
The app has 16 categories to file a complaint: Intimidation; making religious or communal speeches; distribution of money, coupons and liquor; erecting posters or banners without permission; campaigning within 200 meters of the polling booth and during the silent period; among others.