New Delhi: The Delhi chief electoral office is making every effort to ensure that the upcoming Assembly polls are conducted in the most transparent, free and fair manner.
A senior official says a foolproof multi-layered system involving a total of 12,176 polling stations, including 413 auxiliary polling stations, located in 2,530 buildings in 70 constituencies has been set up so that 1,33,09,078 registered voters can cast their votes.
A day after AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Ashutosh met the election commission and voiced their concern over discrepancies in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the officials at the Delhi election office said they are working tirelessly to eliminate any such discrepancy in EVMs.
The officials are scrutinizing each of the 12,176 EVMs through a multi-level checking process in order to ensure a transparent and flawless execution of polling process. Moreover, These EVM's location can be tracked by authorities through a unique code which is embedded with each machine.
“As the EVMs are tested for their functionality during their first level check, to ascertain whether they are in perfect order, by the engineers and certified by them. This step is conducted in the presence of general observers deployed by the Election Commission.
The EVMs are then segregated by a two-step randomisation process under which they are first allocated their Assembly constituencies by a computerised random distribution process and then further allotted their polling stations.
Finally, each of the EVMs undergo a commissioning process whereby special pink paper slips, manufactured only at the Nashik printing press, containing the candidates' names and party symbols are manually pasted on the ballot unit of the EVM.” a senior police official said while explaining the checking process.
He further added, “The entire process takes place in the presence of general observers and candidates of political parties so that there is no room left for inconsistencies and doubts.”
“On the polling day the EVM's are put through the mock poll drill to just an hour before the actual poll and the defective machine are replace by the reserved machines kept for emergency purposes.” he concluded.
EVMs in India are manufactured exclusively by the public-sector enterprises Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited.
