Unique initiative to ease poll officials and huge expenditure cut by the transport cell in Assam’s Darrang district
By Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : The smooth functioning of any electioneering process be it a case of panchayat, assembly or the parliamentary heavily depends upon the proper management of the transport system where there lies the responsibility of timely arrangement of the required no of vehicles, safe dropping of all the polling and security personals at their respective polling stations on time and to pick 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 has been found to an exception 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, 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 made the Zonal and Sector Officers well informed about detail 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 APN News Pankaj Chakravarty , Additional Deputy Commissioner in charge of the transport cell said that as around six thousand polling officials have to be carried to the destination within a stipulated time , so it is very important that there is well planned mechanism which help them to avail the facilities provided in a comfortable way and this thought led to introduction of this free of 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 practiced on earlier days.”, he shared. 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 in earlier occasion while sharing their views with APN News have considered this unique service of much help for 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 saving a huge sum of public money . It has been a common practice during polls to hire the required numbers of vehicle for a period of four days. But unlike 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 to save an approximate amount of Rs. 17 lakhs from the public exchequer which has been termed as a glaring example in the state. Earlier, the required vehicles were brought from Guwahati or other districts through the Bus associations.
This time all the vehicles engaged in the poll duty have also been managed from Darrang district only. According to available information, except in the district of Darrang, all the districts, like previous years have hired the vehicles for four days only. 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 to make a savings of approximate amount of several crores of rupees in the state.
On the other hand, Additional Deputy Commissioner Chakravarty on Tuesday morning administered the oath to all the drivers and handymen to maintain cleanliness and to perform their assigned duties with high devotion to contribute in the formation of the Panchayati Raj system in the state. The Transport Cell with a view to make the functioning of the cell more transparent also published a ‘Transport Manual’ of 175 pages 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.
