Queue App to beat urban apathy in polls

SHILLONG: The state election machinery will come up with a Queue Management App to beat urban apathy during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Come polling day and there is less turn out of voters in the urban constituencies. The apathy was visible in the past Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
Even during the just concluded district council polls, voters’ turnout in urban areas was lower compared to rural constituencies.
The chief electoral officer Frederick Kharkongor told The Shillong Times that the main problem in the urban areas is that people do not prefer to stand in long queue.
Very often, people in urban areas want to instantly cast their votes and it appears that they do not have time to  wait for the queue to be over, the official said.
The attempt is to ensure that the voters get the status of the queue so that they can come out and vote when the crowd is thin instead of staying at home, he said.
“The NIC is developing a software to create the Queue App”, Kharkongor said.
Through the App, the voters will get information about the status of the queue at a particular time in polling stations and this will help the voters to come to their respective polling stations when there are not many in the queue.
Kharkongor, however, said election is a festival in rural areas of the state compared to urban centres.
The official indicated that Meghalaya may be first in the country to develop the App in the interest of the urban voters.