Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 24: State chapter of EVM Virodhi Rashtriya Jan Andolan has decided to launch wider awareness among the people against misuse of EVMs and mismatch in EC figures during recently held Lok Sabha elections.
Talking to media persons here today former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman said that he attended three day national consultation meeting on EVMs- ‘ Back to Ballot Paper’ in Delhi from July 14 to 16 in which prominent and distinguished persons from various fields participants from 16 states. The main focus of the agenda was the use of EVMs by Elections Commission of India who hired private companies and uploaded the same through their hired engineers to handle the EVMs as EC has no experts of their own.
Rehman pointed out that European countries which had invented the EVMs have reverted back to ballot papers in view of flaws. A private agency `Centre for Media Study ‘ has reported in its recent report that 2019 elections in India were record costliest as about Rs 700 were spent on each voter totaling estimated amount of Rs 27,000 crores, on which even 90 % of the media houses are silent.
It was found that there was great mismatch between the voter turn out / votes polled data on the EVM and the votes counted data on machines, both shared by the EC in 373 constituencies which went to poll in first four phases of the Lok Sabha elections 2019. There were many stories which came to fore with regard to storage and safety of these machines. Through a PIL in Bombay High Court it was came to fore that about 20 lakh EVMs have gone missing from the possession of ECI. It is fact that EVMs were manufactured by Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics under the direct control of Central Govt. It is cause of serious concern. The possibility of EVM tampering endangers a crucial dimension of India’s democracy that is people’s right to free and fair voting, he added.
The former MP said that many glaring examples including raising of questions on the VVPATs system and its usage etc were discussed in details. It was unanimously decided to launch awareness campaign in the country and launch a united struggle for the restoration of old ballot system. For this it was decided to observe August 9 as not as `Quit India Movement’ day but EVM-Bharat Chodo ( EVM Hatao- Ballot Paper Lao, Desh Bachao campaign). All the political parties in opposition must recognize this threat posed by the manipulations of EVM that compromise a free and fair elections, he added.
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