EC control room more organised this time

The control room of the Delhi Election Commission, supervising the polling in the 70 assembly constituencies, was more relaxed and orderly Wednesday unlike in the past.

"Today (Wednesday), the whole team is working in a very dedicated way as we have been trained to tackle all kinds of issues and complaints that generally arise on the polling day," an official for north district told IANS, declining to be named.

Eighteen officers from nine districts of the capital - north, north-west, north-east, south, south-west, east, central, west, and New Delhi - said they were handling heavy workload but there was no reason to panic.

These officials underwent four-day training to handle pressure on the polling day.

"Clear instructions have been given by the Election Commission to rigidly follow the norms during data compilation," said the official.

To bring reform and uniformity in the polling procedure, this year the polling officers are using an SMS-based system to update the Election Commission (EC) officials.

"The service is fast, and much better than the traditional method where polling officers used to prepare a report at regular intervals, ranging five-six hours, and then send it across. That time-consuming method was followed until the last assembly elections (2008)," said the official.

Accountability of officials has been fixed.

"If something goes wrong in data compilation, the blame will directly fall on them," he said.

However, another officer from the west district said though the SMS system is a welcome change, there are a few shortcomings in it.

"I feel the presiding officers deployed at the control room are not equipped and familiar with the SMS system as compared to young election officers. So, there is a need for the EC to deploy more young officers in the control room for such roles," he said.

Throughout the day, the district election officers were busy reading data on mobile phones.