EC addressing public grievances on polls through 'Samadhan' app

Ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, the Election Commission (EC) is addressing public grievances related to voter lists and voter ID cards in a tech-savvy manner with the help of a mobile app 'Samadhan', officials said.

"It is now very easy for any voter to lodge a complaint with us with the help of this mobile app which is available freely on Android platform. We are getting all kinds of complaints from voters related to voter id cards, mistakes in voter list, etc," an EC official said.

An EC team has been tasked to take note of all the complaints received through the app and process it for redressal.

After lodging a complaint a message is sent to the voter with a complaint ID through SMS service and after the grievance is redressed then also another SMS is sent with all the details.

Officials said in the run-up to the elections they so far have received 1,300 complaints so far.

"The app has made grievance redressal faster and easier. Most of the complaints has been from the districts like Burdwan, South and North 24 Parganas," the official said.

Besides electoral rolls, any other complaint related to violations in campaigning rules or model code of conduct can also be made through the app.

Not just voters but candidates can also lodge complaints through the digital citizen interface.

Two other apps are also being launched by the commission. 'Suvidha' will act as a single-window system to approve all campaign-related applications while 'Sugam' will take care of arrangement of vehicles for poll duty.