Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday launched ‘NIGHA’, a mobile application to ensure ‘clean and healthy’ polls by curbing the use of money and alcohol in the upcoming local body elections in the state.
The app was launched at the Chief Minister's camp office in Amaravati on Saturday. Special Secretary to Chief Minister PV Ramesh, Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar were among those who were present.
"The Panchayat Raj Department, in a bid to crack down on electoral malpractices, has set up the NIGHA app to empower common citizens to lodge complaints seamlessly. Anyone can download the NIGHA app on their smart phones," a press release from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.
Authorities said that citizens could take photos and videos of distribution of money and alcohol and any other activity that violates the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and upload it on the app, following which a complaint is registered.
All complaints registered on the app will automatically be routed to the Central Control room and the information will be shared with the concerned officials, the release said.
"The concerned officials will take stringent action against the people responsible for the crime. The app is designed in addition to the measures taken up by State Election Commission and Police Department to curb malpractices in the local body elections," it added.
As many as 2.82 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the elections to second and third tier of panchayat raj institutions to be held on March 21 in the first phase of the four-phase polls to rural and urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh.
The five-year term of the local bodies ended in July last year but the elections were delayed as the reservation of seats was not finalised.
Though the government issued an order providing for a total 59.85 percent quota for SCs, STs and BCs in all local bodies, the High Court struck it down. It directed the government to re-do the reservation, restricting the quota to 50 per cent in line with the Supreme Court orders.
Accordingly, the state government notified the new quota, paving the way for the elections. As per the new quota, STs will get 6.77 percent, SCs 19.08 percent and BCs 24.15 percent. Previously the BC quota was 34 percent.
As the state faced the threat of losing funds under the 14th Finance Commission devolution if the elections to panchayat raj institutions were not completed by March 31, the YSRCP government decided to rush through the process, though the curtailing of BC quota became politically contentious.
Elections will be held for all the 660 zilla parishad territorial constituencies and 9,984 out of 10,047 mandal parishad territorial constituencies on March 21 and results will be declared on March 24.