By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAY 20, 2024: IN the Lok Sabha polls 2024, the cVIGIL app of Election Commission of India has emerged as a highly effective tool in the hands of people to flag election code violations. Since the announcement of the General Elections 2024, over 4.24 lakh complaints have been received through this App as on May 15, 2024. Out of these 4,23,908 complaints have been disposed of and the remaining 409 cases are under process. Nearly, 89% complaints were resolved within a 100 minutes timeline, a promise by ECI, firmly held.  

Citizens have used this APP for checking electoral malpractices in use of loudspeakers beyond prescribed time or noise levels, campaigning during ban period, placing banners or posters without permission, deployment of vehicles beyond permitted limit, property defacement, display firearms/ intimidation and in checking inducements.  The category wise complaints are given below:

cVigil is a user-friendly and easy to operate application, which connects vigilant citizens with the District Control Room, Returning Officer and Flying Squads Teams. By using this app, the citizens can immediately report on incidents of political misconduct within minutes and without having to rush to the office of the returning officer. As soon as the complaint is sent on the cVigil app, the complainant will receive a unique ID through which the person will be able to track the complaint on their mobile.

A trinity of factors working simultaneously makes cVIGIL a success. Users capture audios, photos or videos in real-time, and a "100-minute" countdown for time-bound response to complaints is ensured. The app automatically enables a geo-tagging feature as soon as the user switches on their camera in the cVIGIL to report a violation. This means that flying squads can know the precise location of a reported violation, and the image captured by citizens could be used as evidence in the court of law. Citizens can also report complaints anonymously. To prevent misuse, the cVIGIL app incorporates several safeguards, including geographical restrictions, time constraints on reporting, and mechanisms for filtering out duplicate or frivolous complaints. The app is one amongst the armoury of Apps built by the Commission to leverage technology and facilitate voters and political parties.