In a bid to make the election process more transparent in India, four college students from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh have developed a novel technology. The students of Chebrolu Engineering College, together with their lecturer, have developed an Aadhaar-controlled polling station with a remote monitoring system.
It all started when Vamsi Krishna, a student of Computer Science Engineering at the Chebrolu Engineering College, decided to work on making the election process easier and more secure. Krishna collaborated with fellow students Roshini, Haniharika and Jayasree, and under the guidance of their lecturer, RV Krishnaiah, developed the Aadhaar-controlled polling station.
The system consists of a 300 sq feet room with a biometric lock which will be linked with Aadhaar details. The room will have an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). In order to cast vote, only one person can enter at a time and at the entrance, they are required to scan their fingerprint. Once inside, the door will be locked and the person can cast their vote. In order to leave, they must scan their fingerprint at the biometric lock again, after which their details will be recorded. RV Krishnaian explained that no person can enter the room twice. And if they try, the doors will be locked and an alert will be sent to the operators. Thus, manual labour will be reduced and the process will be entirely transparent, claim the inventors. Additionally, voters do not need to be assigned polling stations and can utilise their franchise at any centre.
The project was selected by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which allotted Rs 15 lakh to the team to develop it. "Once the project is completed and tested successfully, we will submit this to the Election Commission of India. The zeal of these students to come up with innovative ideas and start working on them has inspired many other students to develop their own ideas which can help people and society. Science is all about helping people and making their lives more comfortable," Krishnaiah said.