Election Commission of India launches Garuda app for digital mapping of polling booths

The Election Commission of India (ECI) introduced the Garuda app on Friday for the digital mapping of all polling stations. Data like latitude and longitude of the polling stations have to be added by the Booth Level Officers (BLO) to ensure faster, smarter, transparent and timely completion of election work. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Punjab along with Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar talked to the media before holding a poll preparedness review meeting at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Ludhiana. Dr S Karuna Raju informed that through this app, BLOs will upload photos and location information of the polling stations from their registered mobile numbers.

It was also informed to the media that the app will be key in reducing the paperwork. The BLO’s will also be given the ability to add or delete voter names or modification of addresses in the electoral roll. The officials further told that several facilities have been finalised as assured facilities at the booths like toilets, wheelchair, drinking water, electricity, sheds, chairs, ramps for differently-abled. The installation of these services can be tracked through the app. CEO Punjab further added that the ECI would complete the proves in Ludhiana over the next three days.

More polling booths due to COVID-19

Chief Electoral Officer Punjab also announced that to avoid overcrowding at the polling booths and to maintain social distancing in accordance with the COVID-19 protocols, the number of polling booths has been increased to 24659 polling booths from 23211 booths. Raju said that the Commission was fully completely prepared to conduct the elections. The CEO has also asked the officials to conduct extensive awareness programmes in localised areas to ensure that every eligible voter is mentioned in the voter list. These programmes would be run under Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) to encourage the voters to take part in the election process. The officials will also be tasked to remove deceased names from the list and take care of other errors. Raju had detailed interaction with the officers of the district administration on election preparedness. He also inspected the First Level Checking (FLC) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) being carried out at PAU since September 30.

(with ANI inputs)

Image: ANI