Best Practices in ERMS of Jammu

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Best Practicesin ERMSofJammu Kashmir
Saleem Khan Technical Director, NIC
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Introduction

• Name of the Project
• JK Electoral Rolls and EPIC Management System
• User Department
• Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir
• State Level Agency
• NIC JK
• Language
• English / Urdu / Hindi
• URL of the Website
• http//ceojk.nic.in

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Basic Details

• Parliamentary Constituencies - 6
• Assembly Constituencies - 87
• Districts - 22
• Tehsils - 82
• Polling Stations - 9460
• Registered Electors (15.05.13) - 68,31,447
• EPIC Card Holders (15.05.13) - 58,79,272
• EPIC Coverage (15.05.13) - 86.06

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Major Objectives

• Hosting of ERMS Application and database at the
  NIC Data Centre
• On-line Filing and Tracking of Voter applications
  
• Monitoring by the EROs, DEOs, the CEO and the ECI
• Authentication by means of Digital Signatures of
  ERO
• History/ Log of the entire workflow
• Total transparency
• Integration of Textual Data with Electors Images
• National Voter Search
• National de-Duplication

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Processes

• Digitization of Form 6 - for addition of new
  voter, Form 7 - for objection on inclusions and
  deletions, Form 8 - for corrections /
  modifications and Form 8A - for transposition
  within AC.
• Keeping track of every citizens application
  /claim.
• Data transfer or uploading to centralized
  database location.
• De-duplication and searching of data/ record.
• Assignment of work to enquiry officers (by ERO)
  for received applications / claims for each part
  in each AC.
• Processing of application (by ERO) after
  reporting of enquiry officers (acceptance/
  rejection/ further clarification).
• Integration of Mother Rolls with Supplementary
  Rolls.
• Printing of a Parts header page, electoral roll
  and MIS reports.
• Conversion of photographs from picture format to
  binary format and merging with alphanumerical
  data.
• Printing of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC).

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Architecture of ERMS
State Level System
Control Table
Managing Electoral Roll that includes insertion,
deletion, updating and transposition within AC.
And printing of Electoral Roll including one or
multiple supplementary list.
Electoral Roll
ERO
Uploaded
Bulk Export
BLOs
Door to door verification
Local Machine
Form 6
Form 7,8 8A
Database
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Electors
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Salient Features

• Claims and Objections
• Continuous Updation - Digitization of Electors
  claims as soon as received
• E-Filing of claims / objections and their Online
  Tracking
• Changes in E-Rolls authenticated by ERO using
  Digital Signatures
• Complete History/ Log of the entire workflow from
  filing to disposal
• MIS Reports/ Screens for EROs, DEOs, the CEO and
  the ECI
• Electoral Rolls
• Electoral Rolls in Urdu and English (for entire
  state) and in Hindi (for 5 districts)
• Being available on the official website, Rolls
  are easy to obtain and read / understand.
• Photo-Electoral rolls to help in elimination of
  impersonation during voting.
• Name based and EPIC No. based search in the Rolls
  
• Online generation of family wise Rolls extracts
  in Urdu, English and Hindi
• Alphabetically sorted Electoral Rolls at the time
  of polling
• Computerized Voter Slips at the time of Elections
  
• Electors Photo Identity Cards
• So far, 58 Lakh bi-lingual EPIC cards have
  already been distributed.
• Centralized Auto generation of unique EPIC number
  in order to curb fake card production
• Capturing/ storing/ automatic indexing the
  electors photographs and linking with textual
  data
• The software enables auto-Detection of logical
  data errors

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Status of Implementation

• Online ERMS Application and database at NIC Data
  Centre
• System users are the CEO, all District Election
  Officers, all Electoral and Assistant Electoral
  Officers
• Computerized Electoral Rolls in Urdu English
  (for the entire state) in Hindi (for 5
  districts)
• 58 Lakh bi-lingual EPIC cards have already been
  distributed covering 82 of the electorate
• Web Interface
• Electoral Rolls http//ceojk.nic.in/ElectionPDF/
  Main.aspx
• Name based and EPIC No. based Search
  http//ceojk.nic.in/efiling/main.aspx
• E-Filing of Claims and Objections
  http//ceojk.nic.in/eFiling/addvoters.aspx
• Claims and Objections tracking http//ceojk.nic.i
  n/claimforms/frmformsdisplay.aspx
• Citizens Grievances http//eci-citizenservices.n
  ic.in
• Mobile (SMS) Interface (Number 919211728083)
• Where am I (in Electoral Rolls)? JKERM ltspacegt
  STATUS ltspacegt 10-character-EPIC
• Who is my Booth Level Officer? JKERM ltspacegt
  BLO ltspacegt 10-character-EPIC
• Where is my Polling Station? JKERM ltspacegt PS
  ltspacegt 10-character-EPIC
• Is the EPIC Number valid? - JKERM ltspacegt VALID
  ltspacegt 10-character-EPIC
• Get Help about different SMS based services -
  JKERM ltspacegt HELP

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Compliance with ECI Guidelines
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Compliance Status

• RDBMS (SQL Server 2008) being used
• ER Database at State Level
• DR would be in place very soon
• DB fully secure and password protected
• Audit trail with time stamping and access log
• DB structure varies very slightly from ECI ERMS
• Read Only Access to ECI
• Separate DB for application forms and Rolls
• Complete workflow for ERO
• Separate DB for EPIC
• Separate Master / Control Tables

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Compliance Status

• English and 2 vernacular languages used
• Photographs in JPEG/ Binary
• Unicode (UTF-8) character set used
• All forms digitized at point of receipt
• Bulk entries prevented by use of user ID and
  verification code on SMS
• Write permission to ERO
• Role based access to CEO/DEO/ERO/Vendors
• Digital Signature Database
• Multiple Supplementary and Integration as per ECI
  logic
• Enquiry ? Final Order work flow module for ERO

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Compliance Status

• Final Write by ERO using DSC / Password
• No auto integration with Mother Rolls (Supple
  used)
• No physical deletion of records, only flagging
• History of transactions maintained
• Provision for NRI Electors
• Provision for Service Electors
• Statistical Reports (Format 1 to 8)
• ECI instructions followed for printing E Rolls
• ECI approved formats for E Rolls
• Working copy is called Checklist in JK
• Printing in Vernacular being done

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Compliance Status

• Integration only before Draft publication
• Photo Rolls as hard copy non-photo for Website
• Photo Voter Slips module
• Size of photo image limited to 20 KB
• Quality enhancement tools in ERMS
• Scan and digitize collected photographs
• No separate EPIC DB
• EPIC made only after merging image with textual
  data
• All information on EPIC comes from ER data
• EPIC number (FUSN) generated centrally as per ECI
  logic

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Compliance Status

• EPIC format approved by the ECI
• Online EPIC printing now possible
• No separate data entry for making EPIC
• E-Filing (online application) facility in place
• Claims/ Objections tracking online by unique form
  ID
• Name based and EPIC based search on Website
• SMS based services in place using NIC gateway
• Checklists at various levels
• Monitoring /tracking by senior officers
• Statistical Analysis of Health of Rolls

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Compliance Status

• JK using own ERMS developed by NIC JK
• ERMS in NIC network only after Security Audit
• Read only back-end access to ECI

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Best Practices
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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Ensuring Data Security and preventing
  Intrusion/ Hacking
• Remedy ? NIC has deployed the application and
  database in its own Data Centre at Jammu with
  separate Web Server, Application Server, Database
  Server and Testing Server. The DR site would be
  at National Data Centre, New Delhi
• Challenge ? Infrastructure and Connectivity for
  EROs
• Remedy ? Computers and Peripheral provided to
  EROs under ERMS project executed by NIC/ NICSI.
  Connectivity is through NICNET.

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Monitoring by CEO, DEO and EROs
• Remedy ? Separate User Accounts for CEO, ERO etc.
  for monitoring the status and generating various
  MIS Reports like De-duplication, E-Rolls Health,
  BLO Details, Statistics, e-Filed Claims, Control
  Tables Updation, Sections Marking
• Challenge ? Bringing about Transparency and
  Fixing Responsibility
• Remedy ? Complete Audit Trail is maintained for
  the entire workflow right from Data Entry/
  e-Filing to EROs Final Order

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? De-Duplication
• Remedy ? De-Duplication Module deployed. Reports
  Generated for entire state. SOP prepared for
  De-duplication
• Challenge ? Voter Search in the Database
• Remedy ? Free Search by Voter Name or by EPIC No.
  available through the official website of CEO.
  Search possible in Urdu, English or (selective
  areas) Hindi.
• Challenge ? Reaching residual Voters
• Remedy ? Generation of Form-001B and getting
  voters photos for further processing

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Curbing Fake EPIC production
• Remedy ? Auto-generation of FUSN use of approved
  Holograms, EROs Facsimile signatures.
• Challenge ? Clear Outlining of Roles and
  Responsibilities
• Remedy ? User Accounts of CEO, Vendors, EROs,
  Data Entry Operators have different associated
  roles and privileges.

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Maintaining control over Data
  Multiple versions, scope for manipulation
• Remedy ? Centralized ERMS preventing multiple
  versions and scope for manipulation
• Challenge ? Ensuring easy availability of
  Electoral Rolls without personal contact
• Remedy ? Online Electoral Rolls in downloadable
  PDF format in Urdu, English and Hindi ensuring
  transparency
• Challenge ? Providing a common interface to
  public for lodging grievances
• Remedy ? Public Grievance mechanism online at
  http//eci-citizenservices.nic.in

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? No tracking mechanism for Elector
  claims and objections
• Remedy ? Online and via SMS Tracking of Electors
  claims and objections
• Challenge ? Fixing responsibility for errors/
  omissions Good quality MIS
• Remedy ? All changes to be authenticated by use
  of DSC by the EROs
• Challenge ? Peculiarities of Urdu Language and
  Font
• Remedy ? Nastaleeq Font with Unicode storage
• Challenge ? Achieving standardization in RDBMS,
  data structures, user interface, report formats
• Remedy ? MS SQL RDBMS and ECI approved data
  structures, user interface, report formats etc.

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Disconnect between EPIC Database and
  Rolls Database
• Remedy ? Integration between EPIC Database and
  Rolls Database
• Challenge ? Errors in Transliteration (due to
  inherent differences in languages)
• Remedy ? Continuous Improvement in
  Transliteration Dictionary
• Challenge ? Health of Rolls - Removal of Errors
  and ensuring fidelity of Rolls
• Remedy ? Inbuilt checks for preventing junk data
  entry. Separate Module for generating Erros
  Reports for improving Rolls Health.

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Countering Voter Apathy
• Remedy ? Celebrating 25th January as Voters Day
• Challenge ? Improving Gender Ratio
• Remedy ? Systematic Voter Education for Electoral
  Participation (SVEEP)
• Challenge ? Netting the Young Electors
• Remedy ? Enrolment in educational institutions

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Including homeless, migrants, NRI,
  transgender, disabled and sex workers
• Remedy ? Booth Level Agents of political parties
• Challenge ? Fine-tuning the Elector-Population
  Ratio as per the National average
• Remedy ? Newspaper Ads, TV tickers, Brochures
• Challenge ? Reaching the target of 100 EPIC
  coverage
• Remedy ? Deploying Designated Photography
  Locations (DPL) Involvement of 780 Khidmat
  Centres (CSC).

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Making e-Filing process robust and
  trustworthy
• Remedy ? e-Filing new version would incorporate
  user ID creation based upon mobile number. SMS
  for validation already in place.
• Challenge ? Data Entry to be streamlined
• Remedy ? For Continuous Updation, the data entry
  being done in house for bulk data entry, during
  Summary Revision for instance, vendors do the
  job.
• Challenge ? Preventing impersonation during
  voting (would explore Photographing and then
  analysing with IT tools the voters faces on Poll
  Day)
• Remedy ? Webcasting of polling in Hypersensitive
  polling stations

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Challenges and Remedies

• Challenge ? Bringing about Transparency in Poll
  Parties Deployment
• Remedy ? Randomization of Polling Parties using
  in-house software by NIC
• Challenge ? Bringing about Transparency in EVM
  Deployment
• Remedy ? Randomization of EVM using in-house
  software by NIC (now to be replaced by National /
  State-wide database of EVM with randomization
  function
• Challenge ? Improving Communication on Poll Day
• Remedy ? SMS based poll-day monitoring through
  NIC gateway would be deployed

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A New Initiative

• Using Common Service Centres (CSC)
• Tie up with JK Bank Ltd. (agency implementing
  CSC)
• 780 Khidmat Centres (CSC) functional
• e-Filing through JK Bank Portal
• Other services include
• SMS based Query
• Download / Print Electoral Rolls
• Name / EPIC based Search in the Rolls Database
• Forms download/ print
• Electoral Rolls extract

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ERMS CellWhat you will need?

• Civil/ Electrical works (if required). Basically
  the room should be neat and clean, dust and
  seepage free and there should be adequate power
  sockets to connect the equipment
• Earthing should be proper in order to prevent
  high leakage current.
• Desktops/ Laptops - About 1 per AC 
• Peripherals 1-2 Printers, One Scanner etc. 
• Stable Power Supply One UPS 2/3/5 KVA. The
  supply to sockets should be through this UPS
• Servo Stabilizer (AVR  Manual) - 7-8 KVA for 5
  KVA UPS 5 KVA for 2-3 KVA UPS
• DG Set - 10 KVA
• Adequate Furniture for Computer Centre 
• Connectivity NICNET (wherever feasible)
• Consumables Toners, Stationery, Pen Drives
• Technical Manpower Data Entry Staff
• Telephone Line Dedicated for 1950 (Only at
  District HQ)

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Separation ofResponsibilities
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Stakeholders Responsibilities

• Election Department
• Procurement/ purchase of Computers, Printers,
  Scanners, UPS, DG Set
• LAN Material (Cables, Switches, Routers),
• Care and upkeep of all tangible items,
• Consumables (Toner Cartridges, Stationery)
• Data Entry for Continuous Updation
• Disposal of Claims/ Objections
• Printing / Scanning on small scale
• Public Grievance Redressal / Monitoring
• Updation of ERMS Control Tables
• Updation of PGR/ PSL Control Tables
• Prepare and provide content (soft copy) for CEOs
  website
• CEOs Portal updation
• Data Entry for EVM database

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Stakeholders Responsibilities

• NIC (SLA) State Unit and District Offices
• Support for Database Storage and Management
• Software Development and Deployment
• Software Customization as per user needs
• Troubleshooting except Hardware maintenance
• Coordination with vendors for Equipment
  maintenance
• Bandwidth provision
• Video Conferencing facilities
• Training (faculty only)
• Networking Support and Technical Guidance/
  Consultancy

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Stakeholders Responsibilities

• Third Party Vendors
• Bulk Data Entry
• Bulk Printing
• Managing the DPL (Designated Photography
  Locations)
• Photo scanning/ cropping/ cleaning/ compression,
  grayscale conversion
• Form001B printing
• Image integration with E-Rolls database
• Card Production (printing, hologram, lamination
  etc.)

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Contact Details

• Saleem Khan, Scientist E Technical Director
• 0191-2546672, 0194-2474116
• 91-9419123923
• saleem.khan_at_nic.in
• Baiju Ubbot, Scientist B
• 0191-2546672
• 91-9419151650
• baiju.ubbot_at_nic.in

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Thanks
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