The Hindu Business Line : GIS system to monitor poll security arrangements

MONITORING of Monday's panchayat body elections is a click away for the Superintendent of Police of Dakshina Kannada. He can monitor the arrangements at any particular booth on his laptop computer, while being at any corner of the district at any point of time.

Dakshina Kannada Police are all set to experiment with the GIS (global information system) application to monitor the security arrangements during the panchayat elections.

The district police, in association with NRDMS (Natural Resources Development and Management Society), have done groundwork in this regard.

The police have integrated the police security scheme with the digital map of the district that is available with NRDMS, using `Arc View' software. All details related to the elections such as sensitivity of polling booths, stationing of striking forces, area demarcation of sector mobiles, deployment of personnel to booths and telephone numbers have been linked with the digital map.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Mr B. Dayananda, Superintendent of Police, said that software would be installed in the district control room in Mangalore, the temporary control room in Puttur, and in his laptop computer. The software will give the police a better perspective of the field-level arrangements.

"If the control room receives any information on trouble in any of the booth in the district, the personnel - within minutes - can confirm to which police station the booth belongs to. The GIS software will give information on the deployment available at the booth and the nearest striking force or sector mobile available. Based on this, the control room can give necessary instructions to the concerned," he said.

Mr Dayananda said that the GIS application is being used on an experimental basis in Dakshina Kannada district in the state.

"If found useful, it can be improved upon and used for various other purposes in future," he said.

Mr Dayananda told Business Line that the GIS application also provides information on the contestants and the number of voters related to a particular booth.

"We can get information on the exact number of male and female voters in the particular area," he added.