NIC Supports J&K Elections From Jit Raj, J & K Correspondent Strategically located Jammu and Kashmir State constitutes the northern most extremity of India. The state has 87 Assembly segments, for which polling was held, in four phases, in Sept-Oct. 2002. 7025 polling stations were established in all the 14 districts for 59,53,255 voters. Electronic Voting Machines(EVMs) were used for the first time in the State. NIC J&K State Unit was entrusted with the task of providing informatics support to Chief Electoral Officer and District Election Officers. NIC developed a website (http://jk.nic.in/election) exclusively to host the election related information such as the contesting candidates, polling stations, maps of constituencies, e-mail & telephone directory, voter turnout, press notifications, results etc. Internet and E-mail facility were provided to the Election observers and other important officials of election office. For data compilation and transmission , NIC officials were deputed to Chief Electoral Office at Srinagar and Media Centres at Jammu and Srinagar. NIC District Centres provided NICNET and computing support to District Election Officers. They had created database of polling officials, transport plan, magistrate duty plan etc. Assignment of polling station to polling officials was done using software which used the randomization procedure. Individual duty orders of polling staff and ballot papers were also generated. Voter turnout was compiled and transmitted to Chief Electoral Office at Srinagar using NICNET from all the District Election Offices. As in earlier elections, Doordarshan had tied-up with NIC, for collection and transmission of election results to Doordarshan studio. As soon as the counting had begun, DIOs started sending data to NIC H.Q. where it was further processed and sent to Doordarshan Centre at Delhi. NIC was the first to flash trends, trend reversals and final outcomes. The performance was remarkable not just for speed but also for efficiency and a very high degree of accuracy.