An emerging field that is becoming very useful in electoral management is the use of GIS. Sh. Debashis Sen, Chief Electoral Officer, IAS, Govt. of West Bengal, talks to Informatics about the various ICT reforms made/ should made in the Electoral Process for West Bengal as well as for the Country.
How would you describe the significant role played by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the overall Election process of the Country?
DS: Ever since ICT was integrated with the election process in 1997, the Election Commission of India took a major step to digitise the electoral rolls of the country. Today, details of all 692 million electors are stored in electronic databases. These electoral rolls are hosted on NIC servers at Delhi and at the State Data Centres, which can be accessed by the citizens from the National Portal of the Commission.
I think that the greatest contribution of ICT in electoral management is in the preparation of photo-electoral rolls. The photo-rolls are an effective device to prevent impersonation as each elector is identified by his image printed on the electoral roll. Without ICT, it would have been quite impossible to produce photo-electoral rolls.
We are developing GIS that are citizen-centric, and will facilitate electoral management. Web-based GIS would enable citizens to find his polling booth for casting their vote or to find local electoral office for grievance redressal. Map-based analysis would enable us to locate polling booths rationally, optimally chalk out route charts for transporting polling personnel based on GIS. NIC has been helping us tremendously in developing GIS based applications and I am deeply impressed by the progress made in digitizing topo- sheets and making them web enabled.
In your opinion, what steps need be taken in terms of Standardisation of procedures, Business process re-engineering and change management to make ICT service more effective in the process of registration in the electoral roll and issuance of “Electronic Photo Identity Card” (EPIC)?
DS: Our attempt to popularize web- based enrollment of electors is struggling with three roadblocks. (a) The R. P. Act 1950 mandates that all applications have to be signed. In spite of the availability of digital signatures, getting it on-line is an issue that we are not comfortable with, especially since all electoral services are to be provided free of cost to the public. (b) Applications have to be made in vernacular languages for overwhelming majority of the constituency and this creates problems with most web users (c) It is difficult to devise a smooth process of submission of documents by applicants in support of their claims, especially on matters of citizenship. However, we are trying to work out possible solutions in partnership with Community Service Centres (CSC). This would need extensive back office process re- engineering so that information is digitized at the beginning of the chain, there after the data would flow online to the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO). The EROs, need to be trained to scrutinize applications online for quick delivery of services to citizens and for accurate data back up.
In what way would you use ICT for regular update and cleaning of electoral rolls?
DS: We compare census figures for different age cohorts with electoral data and investigate cases of marked deviations. We make gender specific analysis to isolate exceptions. By using fuzzy logic algorithm, we are able to eliminate duplicate entries in the rolls. Indeed, ICT is a very potent tool that we use everyday to improve the fidelity of the electoral rolls. We also routinely use de-duplication software to cleanse the rolls. Since there are variations, the way people write their names, we use a fuzzy logic algorithm to generate lists of possible duplicates. The lists are made out polling-station wise and are physically checked through field visits by Electoral Registration Officers. We focus on areas showing marked deviation from the average state-wise trend and carry out investigations to rule out causes of any distortions.
How do you foresee the future of election process in West Bengal and what role does it expect from NIC in the next decade at the national level?
DS: I see a pivotal role of NIC at the National Level in developing uniform application software across states, keeping in view the regional disparities. I recall the successful applications made by NIC for vehicle driving License & Registration (Sarathi / Vahan), e-Registration (CoRD), Excise, Commercial Tax and Treasury Modules with which I was associated in some way in my previous assignments. In the arena of election management, I have requested NIC to develop software for randomization of polling personnel and I plan to use it during the ensuing 2009 Parliamentary Elections.
I think that in the days to come, portable or mobile computing will emerge as a great enabler. NIC can contribute significantly because of the demand for developing applications that can facilitate entering data or capturing photographs in presence of an elector at a booth near his / her home leading to quantum improvement in quality of data. Some other areas of intervention could be - electoral data management, face recognition software, web-based self-correction of VoterID cards, smart EPICs and web-based GIS.
Department of Information Technology (DIT) has undertaken various important initiatives under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) such as CSC (Community Service Centre). Can such CSC to be set up through PPP model, be useful for the electors to retrieve information and lodge complaint etc?
DS: I have visited several CSCs and was quite excited by the prospects offered by them. I think these CSCs will provide the ideal interface in narrowing the digital divide. The Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) can transform into a facilitator, aiding rural people to access the fruits of ICT. The VLE's can digitize the electoral application forms and obtain the signatures of the applicants on a printout. This will obviate wrong data entry at the point of origin as the applicant himself will have a chance of reviewing the digitized data.
I have already experimented with the CSCs in two districts of West Bengal during the special revision of rolls that started on 31st July'2008. While there has been a modest success in the pilot CSCs, in order to build up from here, we will have to think of a method of giving the VLE's a token remuneration for each valid application. This again is difficult, since no fees can be charged for electoral registration.
Mention few initiatives taken under your reign to derive the benefits of ICT to make the Electoral process more transparent, elector centric and better management of back office.
DS: e-Communication, especially within the organization, is today an integral part of Digital Governance. Along with emails and websites, I personally handle a G2G communication tool called the “CEO's Blog: For Election Managers Only”. It is hyperlinked at our website www.ceowestbengal.nic.in or directly at www.ceowestbengal.blogspot.com.
This G2G tool is proving to be highly successful. I am able to quickly transmit instructions to all field formations at the districts. I am able to respond to their queries on-line, usually on the same day. Field officers know about the main task at hand - the datelines, the action points etc, days before official circulars reach them through the conventional route. Reply to any query posted by one district officer clarifies nascent doubts of other election managers as well. A hybrid system, whereby District Officers take out prints of the blogs entry and fax these to Block Development Officers, has been working very well in bridging the last-mile-connectivity, though not all the 341 blocks of the state have good net connectivity.
The blogs thus behaves like a living blackboard or an ever changing hoarding in the cyberspace. The informal discussion-space of officials is full of references to the blogs and I use it to put spotlight on well-performing officers. A healthy competition is fostered among the officers leading to overall improvement in quality of governance. I often wonder how public administration got along these years without the e-tools of blogs, websites and emails.
Interviewed by: Motiur Rahman West Bengal Correspondent motiur@nic.in