Kerala wins four awards for smooth conduct of Assembly polls
- Kannur is infamous for political violence and malpractices like booth capturing
- District Collector and district police chief are held responsible for smooth conduct of Assembly polls
FollowKannur, the northern district in Kerala is notorious for political violence and electoral frauds. But this time it has brought laurels to former police chief P Hari Shankar and District Collector P Balakiran for smooth conduct of Assembly polls. The duo bagged the award for best electoral practices.
The state received four awards from the Election Commission of India for smooth conduct of 2016 elections.
Balakiran, now serving as the panchayat director, was selected for bringing in innovative initiatives in election, while Shankar bagged the prize for maintenance of law and order during polls, in the district which was infamous for malpractices like booth capturing, bloodshed and political violence.
The duo successfully curbed various menaces including 'open voting', where the voter was given assistance to cast a vote; a practice which was often misused for fraudulent purposes. During 2016 Assembly elections only eligible persons got the facility and authorities used disability census data to identify the eligible ones.
Other than this, Chief Electoral Officer E K Majhi received the award for best utilisation of Information Technology while the Kerala State IT Mission, bagged the award for the public sector organisation which made the most valuable contribution for conducting polls. The Chief Electoral Officer had also launched a couple of mobile applications to ensure the smooth conduct of polls.
The authorities prevented booth violence and booth capturing with the aid of live monitoring using webcasting. Further, facilities like ramps and use of Braille script was used to make elections disabled friendly. The district administration also successfully implemented 'green protocol' and ensured the friendly behaviour of polling officials towards voters. The arrangements and ease of operation had become a subject of national attention.
