MANGALDAI, Dec 4 - The smooth functioning of any electioneering process, be it a case of panchayat, assembly or the parliament heavily depends upon the proper management of the transport system. Here lies the responsibility of timely arrangement of the required number of vehicles, safe dropping of all the polling and security personnel at their respective polling stations on time and to take them back to election control centres along with the ballot boxes after the poll.
Each and every district election machinery during the time of election must form a separate cell for this transport mechanism and Darrang election district is also not an exception in terms of the formation of a transport cell for the Panchayat poll of the district. However, this time the way of functioning of this transport cell is an exceptional one. The transport cell in a bid to make the whole transport mechanism from locating of the allotted vehicle to communication of all the polling officials to be carried in that vehicle a care-free one, has introduced an innovative method based on Information Technology, perhaps for the first time in the history of Panchayat election process in the country. The cell through bulk �sms� services has made the zonal and sector officers well informed about detailed data of their fellow polling officials, police personnel including the contact numbers so that there can be a better communication within themselves in advance.
Talking to this correspondent, Pankaj Chakravarty, Additional Deputy Commissioner in charge of the transport cell said that as around 6000 polling officials have to be carried to the destination within a stipulated time, so it is very important that there is a well-planned mechanism, which helps them to avail the facilities provided in a comfortable way and this thought led to introduction of this free bulk sms service for all the senior poll officials connected by Jio and Airtel mobile telecom services.
�This IT-based technique may be the first of its kind in the history of Panchayat elections in the country. I have never heard of such mechanism being practised earlier,� he claimed. Several polling officials including Dinesh Sharma, Manab Protim Das, Eajid Ali Rahman Ali and Punyadhar Saikia who had experience of participating in the many other polls on earlier occasions while sharing their views with this correspondent said that this unique service be of much help to them in the critical time frame.
Similarly, in yet another unique initiative, all the drivers and handymen engaged in the poll duty have been offered first aid kits, refreshments and caps only to encourage and inspire them to enjoy while performing their duty in the poll.
The transport cell also made a significant achievement in terms of saving a huge sum of public money. It has been a common practice during polls to hire the required number of vehicles for a period of four days. But unlike in previous years, this time the transport cell, has reduced the number of days of hiring of private vehicles from four days to two. This initiative thereby helped in saving an approximate amount of Rs 17 lakh from the public exchequer. Earlier, the required vehicles were brought from Guwahati or other districts through the bus associations.
This time, all the vehicles engaged in poll duty have been managed from Darrang district only. According to available information, except in the district of Darrang, all the districts, like in previous years have hired the vehicles for four days. It has come to light that if all the other 26 districts (except the six autonomous districts) too could have reduced the number of days for hiring of vehicles, savings of several crores of rupees could have been made.
The Transport Cell with a view to make the functioning of the cell more transparent has also published a �Transport Manual� of containing all the detailed information of the poll arrangement and road direction of all the polling stations which has been of much help for the polling staff. District Transport Officer Dipanjali Bora, Motor Vehicle Inspector Padma Lochan Hazarika, Enforcement Inspector Sahabuddin Tapadar and the staff of the District Transport Office here have also extended all cooperation in the smooth management of the Transport Cell.