KOCHI: The launch of Citizen Vigilance (C-Vigil) App by the Election Commission of India will empower the citizens to report the Model Code of Conduct violations without revealing their identity. And, the district has accorded a warm welcome to the new application with the District Collector taking to Facebook to make Kochiites aware of the new facility.
"By using this app, citizens can immediately report on incidents of political misconduct within minutes of having witnessed them and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer," read a post published in Ernakulam District Collector's official Facebook page. An individual has to click a picture or record a video of up to two minutes’ duration of violations of the code. When the photo or video is uploaded on the app, an automated location mapping will fetch the area details using the GPS.
After successfully submitting the complaint, he/she will get a Unique ID to track the follow-up updates on their mobile. They can report as many incidents as they want in this manner. The identity of the complainant will be kept confidential. A voter can either reveal his identity or remain anonymous to upload the document. The uploaded item will be routed to District Control Room and after receiving the information within 15 minutes, the flying squad will get into action. The squad will visit the spot with the information and will verify the incident to initiate the action within 100 minutes.
In addition, the app has inbuilt features to prevent its misuse. The voter can only file complaints about the MCC violations. The user will get five minutes to report an incident after having clicked a picture or a video. Additionally, the district administration encourages the Kochiites to use the election commission's website for lodging the other type of complaints. Voters can also call the National Contact Centre at 1800111950 or State Contact Centre at 1950 for other complaints.