Big Boss is watching!

Jammu, Apr 24: Command and Control Centre, in the ongoing parliamentary elections, has emerged as a collaborative work space, integrating monitoring of the electoral process on a real-time basis, using the latest technology.

J&K Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P K Pole, while explaining new changes brought in, points out, “Command and Control Centre is not a new intervention. It used to be there earlier also. Now only difference is that the Commission has enlarged its scale with the latest technology, by making it a collaborative work space by integrating monitoring of election process and related aspects viz., electronic media; social media, print media Flying Squad Teams (FSTs); Statistics Surveillance Teams (SSTs); webcasting; Vehicles tracking through GPS and violation of Model Code of Conducts on the basis of real-time information.”

“This all has been brought under one roof, with the latest technology. Integration has helped and eased the monitoring process. For example, we can track the movement of FSTs as all vehicles are GPS-linked (equipped/enabled),” he asserts.

To monitor various election related activities and check Model Code of Conduct (MCC) compliance, a 24X7 working Command and Control Centre has been established at CEO office, Jammu and similar mini control rooms have been set up at every DEO office. Apart from looking for MCC violations, the Control Room also gets live feed of more than 55 percent polling stations and all vehicles being used for poll parties’ movement. Every critical polling station is also under strict surveillance. Live feed of polling in the polling stations is also received at the Command and Control Centre (at CEO office).

Using advanced technology, the officials keep monitoring as to whether the polling process is going on as per rules or some problem (of any nature) is there.

Just a glimpse of ‘Command and Control Centre’ gives an idea of the strenuous efforts being made by the J&K Election department; the officers and officials of the office of J&K CEO, headed by Chief Electoral Officer P K Pole, to make the entire electoral process a fair and transparent exercise.

This is certainly a Herculean task as a dedicated pool of around 200 officers/officials remains engaged round the clock for surveillance of each and every activity taking place in the election-bound constituencies.

Further elaborating the functioning of the Centre, in-charge Gowhar Hafeez Fani informs, “We get second-to-second live feed here. Monitoring staff, comprising around 200 personnel, works here in three shifts i.e., from 8 am to 2 pm; 2 pm to 8 pm and 8 pm to 8 am. Media, social media viz., around 150 Facebook channels; Twitter; Instagram; around 40 national channels besides local channels; YouTube channels etc., all are being monitored here.”

“Apart from this, simultaneously they (monitoring staff) are keeping a watch on Srinagar Smart City and Jammu Smart City. All nakas of Forest; Motor Vehicle Department; Railway besides distilleries, toll plazas across J&K – are under surveillance. JKP, too, is engaged in surveillance jobs side by side. Personnel of Excise, Narcotics are keeping an eye on the movement of all vehicles. Similarly, personnel of all central agencies are also on surveillance jobs 24X7,” he states.

On the polling day, around 40-50 personnel remain engaged in web-casting exercise; 30 to 40 personnel track movement of election-duty vehicles, equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker devices, including those carrying Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs).

Other than polling days, almost 80 personnel, comprising central agencies and J&K government employees, remain on job daily for constant media monitoring; naka surveillance and other election related monitoring. This has been going on constantly for over a month now and will culminate after the counting process is over and all results are declared.