Not picture perfect: surveillance teams struggle with ‘inexperienced’ videographers on contract
With electioneering heading for the final phase in Tamil Nadu, officials monitoring the process on the ground have been facing new challenges from unprofessional and inexperienced videographers who tag along with them, assisting them in executing their tasks.
After the election was announced, flying squads and static surveillance teams, headed by an officer of the rank of magistrate or assistant engineer or assistant executive engineer, and a video surveillance team, headed by a superintendent or junior engineer, are keeping vigil to track poll code violations and prevent distribution of cash to voters. According to the Election Commission guidelines, the entire proceedings should be videographed and reported to the officer concerned in the respective constituency.
An officer who heads the video surveillance team on Wednesday flagged the issue of difficulty in finding a videographer for his team. The videographer who was originally assigned was changed, and they had gone through at least eight videographers in the last few weeks. “Besides, they are sending us schoolgoing students or youngsters who have never touched a camera in their lifetime. So, it is difficult to cover the proceedings”, he said. Videographing the proceedings was outsourced to private players. Sharing an anecdote, an officer said, “One day, we had to follow a prominent candidate who began campaigning on the roads. When we asked our cameraman to start recording, he struggled even to switch on the button. We quickly called another surveillance team, which fortunately happened to be nearby, and had the process videographed. Had anything gone wrong that day, we would have been in trouble.”
Though videographers are to hand over the videos to the team in a CD format the same day, they fail to adhere to the rule. “When