For the first time in India’s electoral history, the entire workforce deputed for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh Assembly poll by the Election Commission will be paid online. The cashless precedent will be set in the entire State through the Returning Officer Network (RONET) software system, following the success of its trials in some constituencies in the Punjab Assembly elections held earlier this year.
RONET is a web-based application used by the poll panel, Chief Election Officer, District Election Officer and Returning Officer to enable them to know what exactly they are required to do and when; without burdening them with an additional reporting forum.
On an average, in a State like Himachal, the EC requires a workforce of 2-2.5 lakh people and its expenses are between Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore.
The candidates would continue to have the option of making payments through cheques or even cash, which, though, will have to be justified through their electoral expenses account to the EC. But the candidates, who are mandated to open bank accounts for their expenses that have a ceiling of Rs 28 lakh, can also make digital payments.
Through this application, the contesting candidates can directly apply for permissions and in-turn the RO can view the permission requests in the RONET.
Elections to the 68-member Himachal Assembly will be held on November 9, and results would be declared on December 18.
According to Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pushpendra Rajput, Himachal will be the first State to use RONET for processing payments to the entire workforce engaged in the elections. “With this application, the Returning Officer or District Election Officer would be capable of making online transactions or payment during polls. To ensure seamless e-payments, RONET has been connected with eKosh, that is Himachal Pradesh’s State Treasury Application,” Rajput said.
EC officials said that RONET will provide updated information to CEO/DEO/RO about polling staff deployment, Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)/Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) deployment and host of other infrastructure and inventory details like persons with disability database, dispatch and collection centre, counting centre, polling station, critical polling booths and webcasting of elections.
According to officials, instead of building the application from scratch, RONET uses existing established packages of interrelated hardware and software. RONET can respond quickly to the changing needs during various stages of the electoral process, thus enabling real-time data availability for electoral staff.
During the polling days, the RO can directly communicate with the polling party regarding training, material dispatch, EVM/VVPAT deployment details, posting orders, postal ballots and pre-poll arrangements by sending SMS and mobile notifications through this application. On the other hand, the polling party can also directly inform the RO about poll day arrangements and voter turnout, straight from their mobile app.
During polling, the presiding officer can report any law and order issue or malfunction of EVM/VVPAT from their mobile application. Immediately, the message will be flashed to the sector officer, RO and DEO for taking corrective action. And upon failure of a timely response, RONET automatically escalates the matter to the higher authority.