Assembly poll preparations in Chhattisgarh are witnessing some innovative technological dimensions possibly never deliberated over actively by many poll observers across the country ever before.
First things first. The prime motivator of promoting technology usage in every aspect of Governance, in fact, had been none other than tech-savvy Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh himself who had been taking active interest in approving any idea by his team of highly tech savvy officials, software developers and engineers in the Department of Information Technology to freely experiment and report innovative findings to him.
The latest in the series of innovations has been the use Geographical Information System (GIS) integrated maps developed by Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) to monitor poll preparations in Chhattisgarh going to polls during the coming months. The GIS maps of Chhattisgarh’s 27 districts with a complete integration with real-time satellite imaging capability has made monitoring of poll preparations that much easier for senior officials at the Mantralaya and other government departments directly monitoring poll arrangements. The usage of technology infused maps have even reached the district headquarters as well across Chhattisgarh.
“Chhattisgarh is the first state to develop a comprehensive GIS model with more than 27 layers and various stakeholders have developed applications for their use while utilising these layers,” Secretary , Energy, Public Relations and Information Technology Aman Kumar Singh told The Pioneer. The officials involved with poll preparations under minute supervision of the Election Commission of India have been making wide usage of the maps of districts replete with data on constituencies, demography and other key parameters to monitor the stages of poll preparation in the State.
“The maps have elaborate data on number of booths in an Assembly segment, total voter population, land ownership data besides the geographical characteristics of the region,” CHiPS Chief Executive Officer (CEO) AM Parial said. He said that maps have multiple usage capability and could be viewed for any decision making activity involving Chhattisgarh’s districts by the poll officials.