Alert residents are helping Election Commission of India (ECI) spot model code of conduct violations by reporting them through the cVIGIL app.

So far, the ECI has received 159 cases of code violation from 24 districts of the state through the user-friendly app.

According to additional chief electoral officer Vinay Kumar Choubey, maximum complaints came from Ranchi district.

“As many as 45 complaints were received from the district. The residents of Ranchi are very alert and fulfilling their duty to facilitate free and fair elections by bringing to our notice any breach of model code of conduct,” Choubey said.

He said out of 159 complaints, 44 were found to be true and proper action was taken.

The complaints, in the form of photos and videos, reached the Dhurwa office of the state election commission and were redirected to the respective district administration for proper action.

Among the poll code violations from Ranchi were posters announcing the launch of government projects.

Choubey didn’t divulge the exact location, but said the complaints were found to be true and the posters were removed.

The model code of conduct became effective from the evening of March 10 when the schedule of parliamentary election was announced.

“People can download the cVIGIL app on their Android smartphones. They can send us photographs or videos of maximum two minutes duration each related to model code violation. The sender’s identity will not be disclosed. We use geolocation to track the spot and the complaint is forwarded to the district administration concerned. Under the mandate, we have to resolve the complaint within 100 minutes and inform the complainant about the action taken. We also have to inform whether the complaint was genuine or not. So far, we have not analysed nature of complaints, which will be done later,” Choubey said.

On whether the election department has any data on the number of people who downloaded the mobile application in Jharkhand, Choubey replied in the negative.

After Ranchi, the maximum number of complaints were received from East Singhbhum district (17) followed by Hazaribagh (12), Palamau (11), Dumka and Deoghar (10 each) and Dhanbad (8).

Six complaints each were reported from Giridih, Gumla, Godda, Latehar and Pakur.

The cVIGIL app was launched by ECI in July 2018 and tested during the Assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Telangana.