Students of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies are an excited lot as they have been solely drafted by the Election Commission to webcast the MLC elections from the Graduates and Teachers Constituencies in Prakasam district on Thursday.
Armed with their laptops, the 127 students from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Nuzvid, on Wednesday fanned out to the 160 polling stations.
K. Manoj, a final year Computer Science student from the Damacharla Anjaneyulu Government Polytechnic, who was busy doing device testing, said it was a great opportunity for the IIIT students.
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“We successfully webcast live the 2014 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections,” proudly recalled another Computer Science engineering student N. Vamsi along with yet another student K. Narendra, for whom it would be a maiden webcasting coverage on Thursday.
Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal, during his visit to the campus, was impressed with their performance and wanted the IIIT involved in the process on a long-term basis, said yet another CSE final year student M. Rajasekhar before leaving for the remote Vetapalem village.
“The students were paid ₹1,500 each during the 2014 elections. But this time, we are not sure how much we will be paid,” they added.
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Arrangements reviewed
A majority of the students drafted for webcasting are from either the Computer Science or the Electronics and Communication Engineering background. They felt they would stand a better chance when compared to others while getting placements in leading IT firms.
The entire election proceedings would be webcast from the district Collector’s office, said District Collector Sujata Sharma while overseeing the arrangements made for the polls along with Superintendent of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma. More than 700 polling personnel and about 2,000 police personnel, including three platoons of the Central paramilitary force personnel have been drafted for the smooth conduct of the elections in the district.