Live surveillance system to keep eye on 2 poll booths tomorrow

The State Election Commission will use 'sensitive booth monitoring system' by installing high resolution cameras at two polling booths in Pune district on a pilot basis during the second phase of municipal council polls to be held tomorrow.
The high resolution cameras will be fitted at two polling centers in Lonavala and Talegaon Dabhade in the district, which will give live feed to the district control room.
The exercise is aimed at curbing malpractices during polls and also important from the security point of view.
"An agency, appointed by the state election commission, will install high resolution video surveillance cameras, which are internet-enabled and have security features such as face photography, grid marking and facility to monitor the flow of the voters," an official attached to the district administration said.

The live surveillance cameras will send real time and live broadcast to the control room and local police station. This will help the authorities take immediate action in case of any untoward incident, he said.
One of the features of the booth monitoring system is that with the face photography feature, the camera will capture the image of people visiting the booth and if any person is found coming again (to vote), the system will send an alert to the control room about it.

"In case of excessive crowd around the booth, the system will relay an alert message to the authorities, including local police station," he added.

The official added that since it is on an experimental basis, the agency requested to allot two centres to them where they can fix the digital eyes.
"The system will be operation on Wednesday at one of the polling centers in Lonavala and in one in Talegaon Dabhade.
Voting for the second phase of municipal council polls in the state will be held tomorrow to elect 324 councillors and 14 municipal council presidents in Latur and Pune districts.