BENGALURU: Controversies surrounding the usage of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in elections however, Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad, have simply six more months to deliver more than 16 lakh Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) systems which will probably be employed all over the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Just on Saturday, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda joined the opposition bandwagon vehemently arguing against the usage of EVMs, led by the Congress which also handed a solution against EVMs in its Plenary Session.
However, the Election Commission (EC) has been persistently arguing in favour of EVMs and VVPATs with Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat pushing aside all doubts being raised by political events and EVMs have been in use in more than a few meeting elections at the side of VVPATs. Various courts have also dismissed petitions filed against the usage of EVMs.
As a part of its arrangements for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the EC, which claims to have enough selection of EVMs, has positioned a large order for VVPATs from BEL and ECIL and set a September time limit for supply of 16.15 lakh such systems.
The value of the order is Rs 2,616 crore, which means that that every of the VVPAT systems would cost Rs 16,200 apart from tax. "The order was placed in 2017 and the manufacturers will be allowed to add transportation cost to it," one supply mentioned.
Sources in BEL, while pointing out that manufacturing of the systems has already begun, did not want to specify how many are being made in BEL and how many will come from ECIL. "Only the EC can comment on EVMs, we can only confirm that the orders are there, but cannot comment on any details," a senior authentic mentioned.
According to the EC, there are two fashions of EVMs with it already- M2 and M3- and the VVPATs will probably be specifically designed to be suitable with those two fashions. "A VVPAT can be fixed with any EVM machined from the same family or model. Since there are two models, we will need two versions of the VVPATs," one supply mentioned.
The EC already has about 1.eight lakh VVPATs with it, which were utilized in more than a few elections, together with two by-elections held in Karnataka remaining yr. Once the 16 lakh peculiar machines are delivered, the EC says it will be all set for the Lok Sabha elections.
"During any election, 25 per cent of EVMs are kept as buffer to be used in case of equipment failure. All these years the EC just prepared with EVMs, but now it will also need the additional VVPAT systems," some other supply mentioned.
Just on Saturday, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda joined the opposition bandwagon vehemently arguing against the usage of EVMs, led by the Congress which also handed a solution against EVMs in its Plenary Session.
However, the Election Commission (EC) has been persistently arguing in favour of EVMs and VVPATs with Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat pushing aside all doubts being raised by political events and EVMs have been in use in more than a few meeting elections at the side of VVPATs. Various courts have also dismissed petitions filed against the usage of EVMs.
As a part of its arrangements for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the EC, which claims to have enough selection of EVMs, has positioned a large order for VVPATs from BEL and ECIL and set a September time limit for supply of 16.15 lakh such systems.
The value of the order is Rs 2,616 crore, which means that that every of the VVPAT systems would cost Rs 16,200 apart from tax. "The order was placed in 2017 and the manufacturers will be allowed to add transportation cost to it," one supply mentioned.
Sources in BEL, while pointing out that manufacturing of the systems has already begun, did not want to specify how many are being made in BEL and how many will come from ECIL. "Only the EC can comment on EVMs, we can only confirm that the orders are there, but cannot comment on any details," a senior authentic mentioned.
According to the EC, there are two fashions of EVMs with it already- M2 and M3- and the VVPATs will probably be specifically designed to be suitable with those two fashions. "A VVPAT can be fixed with any EVM machined from the same family or model. Since there are two models, we will need two versions of the VVPATs," one supply mentioned.
The EC already has about 1.eight lakh VVPATs with it, which were utilized in more than a few elections, together with two by-elections held in Karnataka remaining yr. Once the 16 lakh peculiar machines are delivered, the EC says it will be all set for the Lok Sabha elections.
"During any election, 25 per cent of EVMs are kept as buffer to be used in case of equipment failure. All these years the EC just prepared with EVMs, but now it will also need the additional VVPAT systems," some other supply mentioned.
Controversies aside, EC sticks to EVMs, to buy 16 lakh VVPATs in 6 months
![Controversies aside, EC sticks to EVMs, to buy 16 lakh VVPATs in 6 months]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
March 22, 2018
Rating:
