Hyderabad: Techies will help the election authorities in conducting free, fair and transparent polls. They will use their laptops with in-built cameras to web-cast the entire polling process from various polling booths across the city.
The Election Commission officials from Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district have written to the managements of engineering colleges in and around the city to send students, who have laptops with in-built cameras, to help the EC web-cast the polling process.
The officials have requested Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to provide internet connectivity to the polling stations. There are over 6,000 polling booths in the city.
“The laptop with camera will be placed at a vantage point in polling booth from where all the staff on election duty and the electorate coming to cast their votes will be visible. The laptops would be connected to the central server of the Election Commission,” GHMC officials said.
Each student will be paid Rs 500 honorarium per day. They would be given training a day in advance. The students would also be given participation certificates. They would be provided with food and transport for the day. Officials said many institutions, including MJ College of Engineering and the Methodist Institute, have responded positively.
“Earlier, we used to have web-casting only in hyper-sensitive polling booths. This time the Election Commission wants web-casting from all polling booths. It will not be difficult to get that many techies as Hyderabad and its surroundings have many engineering colleges and most of the computer students own laptops,” said Chandramohan Reddy, the returning officer for Goshamahal Assembly Constituency.
Through web casting, the Election Commission of India and the state election authorities will be able to view “live” the poll proceedings of any polling booths.
