Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 31: The Election Commission of India has completely overruled objections raised from some quarters in Jammu and Kashmir on lifting of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from Gujarat and categorically told the Government that the EVMs lying in different districts of Gujarat were 100 per cent temper proof. The ECI has asked the State Election Department to direct the District Electoral Officers (DEOs) to immediately start lifting the EVMs from Gujarat.
Now, the Government has been left with no option. The Election Department has directed all 22 DEOs in Jammu and Kashmir to immediately start lifting EVMs from designated districts of Gujarat. And the process has been set into motion.
Official sources told the Excelsior that after the ECI directive, the DEOs (Deputy Commissioners) with the help of district SSPs in all 22 districts have deputed their teams under tight security arrangements to different districts of Gujarat including Surat, Surendra Nagar, Amreli, Valsad, Gandhi Nagar, Vadodra, Jamnagar, Botad, Junagadh, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar, Navsari and Bharuch etc to lift the EVMs for their respective districts.
“While teams of some of the districts have reached Gujarat to lift their quota of EVMs allotted to them by the Election Department, the teams of other districts were either on way or were preparing to leave for Gujarat to transport the EVMs,’’ sources said adding that every district of Jammu and Kashmir has been allotted a fixed quota of EVMs as per their requirement taking in view the number of polling stations.
The DEOs of Jammu and Kashmir have been allotted specific districts of Gujarat from where they have to lift the EVMs and then transport them to their district headquarters under tight security arrangements of police parties taken from the district police. The EVMs would be kept in strong rooms at the district headquarters after transportation from Gujarat and displayed to political parties and Government officials, who had to be deployed on election duty, for trials.
A total of about 15,000 EVMs have to be lifted from Gujarat for elections in Jammu and Kashmir, where 10015 polling stations are being set up by the State Election Department for 87 Assembly constituencies—46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and four in Ladakh.
Sources said the Election Commission has directed all 22 DEOs of the State to complete the process of lifting EVMs from designated districts of Gujarat within the next 10 days so that their trials are conducted well in time.
According to sources, all EVMs are manufactured in Bangalore, Karnataka and then distributed to the districts through Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) at the time of elections—both Lok Sabha and Assembly.
Sources said the EVMs being brought from Gujarat were new and most modernized equipped with several such features that were capable of detecting the rigging and bogus voting.
The Assembly elections in the State are due to be held in November-December this year.
Sources said the EVMs apart from being completely temper proof have a unique feature of displaying date and timing of start and closure of voting, which would nullify any attempt by anyone to temper with the EVMs or indulge in bogus voting.
The EVMs were equipped with entire latest technology and they would be used for the first time in any election in Jammu and Kashmir. The first level check of the EVMs would start very soon.
Sources said the polling stations for all 87 Assembly segments in Jammu and Kashmir have gone up to 10015 as against 9633 in the previous elections.
Number of the polling booths has been increased to help the voters of far flung areas to exercise their right to franchise. Increase of 382 polling stations in the State would also go a long way in improving voter turnout in the upcoming elections.
The Election Department of the State would even examine setting up of more auxiliary polling stations after completion of summary revision of electoral rolls and their publication on October 1.
“Once summary revision of electoral rolls, which is presently going on, is completed, the Election Department would examine whether there was a need to set up auxiliary polling stations in some parts of the State. If the need was felt, the auxiliary polling stations would be notified,” sources said.
It may be mentioned here that after the news of EVMs being brought from Gujarat for Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir was first published in the Excelsior, some quarters in Kashmir had created an unnecessary and unwarranted uproar saying Gujarat EVMs could favour one party. They wanted the decision to be changed.
However, the Election Commission was firm that EVMs are manufactured only in Bangalore and nowhere else and therefore there was nothing wrong in providing EVMs, which were used in recent Parliamentary elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat, to Jammu and Kashmir.
The EC turned down all objections in this regard and directed the Election Department to ask the DEOs to lift EVMs from Gujarat.
Moreover, sources said, there were several measures to detect anything wrong with the EVMs as it was mandatory to display them to all political parties, the candidates and their representatives. Anyone finding any fault with the EVMs during trial check can point out the same to the DEOs or any other Election Department official, they added.
The trial check of the EVMs before political parties, candidates and their representatives would be held as soon as the EVMs are transported here. Moreover, the Government officials deployed on election duty also had to check the EVMs several times before the voting, sources said.
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