The Jammu and Kashmir Election Department has taken action against 40 government employees for violations of the Model Code of Conduct in the Union Territory.
"Four employees have been suspended, disciplinary action has been initiated against one, and one employee has been disengaged from services and an inquiry has been started against thirty-four employees," the official spokesperson of the J&K Election Department said.
The swift action against these employees of different departments of J&K has been initiated in response to the daily online reports being furnished by the concerned District Election Officers of different districts and offline complaints received on the official e-mail ID of the J&K Chief Electoral Officer, lodged by the general public, office bearers of different political parties and Panchayati Raj Institutions regarding MCC violations.
The move was aimed at ensuring free and fair conduct of ongoing general elections while adhering to the zero-tolerance policy of the Election Commission of India against such violations.
The two employees have been placed under suspension in Kupwara, one in Ganderbal, and one in Doda district, with the initiation of inquiry against them.
Disciplinary action has been recommended against one employee whose involvement in political activities was proven, while one chowkidar has been disengaged/dismissed from services when his involvement was established in political activities.
The concerned authority has issued a warning to one employee who has pleaded to have committed the mistake unknowingly. In addition, inquiries are underway against thirty-four employees, including six gazetted employees, which will be taken to a logical conclusion as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India.
The highest number of violations have been reported from Srinagar district followed by Kulgam and Rajouri as second highest and Udhampur and Ganderbal districts as third highest, while the lowest number of violations have been reported from Kishtwar, Bandipora, Reasi, and Samba districts.
139 grievances received on C-VIGIL app
Till date, 139 grievances have been received on the C-VIGIL app and more than 60 percent have been resolved in time, while others are under resolution.
For filing Model Code of Conduct Violation cases by the citizens, the C-VIGIL app provides time-stamped evidentiary proof of the Model Code of Conduct/Expenditure Violation by empowering every citizen to click a photo or video using his or her Smartphone.
To monitor various election-related activities and also check MCC compliance, a Command and Control Room has been established at the CEO office, Jammu, another Srinagar Smart City, and a similar mini control room at every RO/DEO office, which functions 24x7.
Apart from looking for MCC violations, the Control room gets live feed from more than 100% of polling stations and GPS vehicle tracking of all vehicles being used for poll parties.
The Social Media Monitoring cell and media monitoring, comprising IT personnel, will address fake news, misinformation, disinformation against EVMs, poll process, ECI, etc, and also a violation of MCC and expenditure-related things.
