The State of Jharkhand where uninterrupted power supply and high-speed internet is considered a luxury, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Jharkhand has managed to ensure seamless webcasting of the poll process. There are virtually no power cuts or internet connectivity problems during the webcasting and if any problem arises during polling the staff deputed here solve the issue within minutes.
The technical staff at the CEO office mentioned that tablet cameras used for video recording saves the footages on offline mode if there are hassles in the ‘online streaming’. “During lok Sabha polls, we had used a camera of around 150 Kbps but this time camera with 100 Kbps is used. The upgraded service has fastened the entire process,” Dilip, a staff in the webcasting section said.
According to CEO PK Jajoria, the response of webcasting was comparatively better in the fourth phase polls held on Sunday than the third phase on December 9. Another technician Tejas said that the two hours back up in the tablets has made the monitoring process more convenient.
Four polling booths at Nirsa and similar number of booths at Sindri assembly segments were reported facing hurdles in recording on Sunday. Within five minutes, the technicians were seen solving the matter by explaining the steps of restarting the cameras to the concerned BlOs.
“Booths connected with good Internet network and electricity in urban pockets had only been selected for webcasting,” Additional Chief Electoral Officer KK Soan said on the improved standard of webcasting.
Notably, for webcasting, Booth levels Officers (BlOs) are trained on how to put up the tablets in their booths. The switched on camera is managed by the Deputy Commissioner’s office of a respective district. Around 10 staffs deployed at the back-office monitor the process while three staffs monitor the booths on big screens in the CEO office.
Focusing on the concept of attracting voters, Dilip said in lok Sabha polls, the rear part of the tablet cameras were used wherein the voters could not notice they were observed. “This time, front part of the camera is used so that voters can see that their activities within the booth premises are being recorded,” added Dilip.
Meanwhile, out of the four districts Dhanbad, Deoghar, Bokaro and Giridih including 15 constituencies where the fourth phase polls were conducted today, maximum webcasting related complains were received from Deoghar. Around 340 booths had webcasting facilities in this phase.
Sources said it was due to the delayed testing time of webcasting on December 13. “Most of the BlOs in Deoghar are women. We had instructed them to do the webcasting test from 2 to 4pm. But, they did not conduct the test in the mentioned timing. This resulted to the bandwidth trouble,” said a technician.