EVMs, VVPATs commissioning underway in Arunachal Pradesh

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: The process of commissioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) in Arunachal Pradesh for the forthcoming simultaneous elections, commenced in all districts from Saturday amidst tight security.

The northeastern state will go to polls for the two Lok Sabha seats and 50 assembly seats in the first phase on April 19 next. Out of the total 60 assembly constituencies in the state, the ruling BJP had already won ten seats uncontested.

The exercise will continue wherein the EVMs and VVPATs will be made fully ready for the April 19 polls simultaneous polls, state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Pawan Kumar Sain said in a statement.

A total of 180 engineers from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited, a PSU under the Department of Atomic Energy, have arrived in the state and they have been allocated across 25 districts of the state for commissioning of EVMs and VVPATs, the CEO informed. He said that the observers appointed by the Election Commission are overseeing the commissioning of EVMs. The enforcement agencies have placed requisite measures like frisking, metal detector, gadget free commissioning halls, and the commissioning is taking place under tight security wherein the machines will be made fully ready for the April 19 poll, the election official said.

Returning officers of Assembly constituencies and assistant returning officers of Parliamentary segments are overseeing the whole process of commissioning of the EVMs. Through EVM commissioning, the names of the contesting candidates who are in fray are attached with the ballot unit (BU). In the VVPAT machines, symbols are uploaded, and candidates’ setting is done in the control unit (CU), he informed.

“EVMs and VVPATs are thoroughly checked and tested by the deputed ECIL engineers under CCTV camera surveillance. The contesting candidates and their election agents or authorized representatives have also been invited to witness the commissioning process,” Sain said. The CEO added that this time the M3 model of EVMs would be used for polling.

 Also Read: Randomization of EVMs, VVPATs for Lok Sabha poll held in Kamrup Metro (sentinelassam.com)

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