STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: With less than four months left for the Assam Assembly polls slated in April 2021, the first-level checking of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial or VVPAT) machines has commenced.
An EVM consists of two parts, namely the ballot unit (where a voter presses the button against a candidate) and a control unit (which registers the voting). As on date, there are 38,277 ballot units and 31,638 control units besides 33,641 VVPATs (the machine that confirms the vote in a slip) with the Department.
The first-level checking of all these machines will be completed by December 31. During this process, the faulty machines are rejected and the ECI (Election Commission of India) is duly informed about it.
Department sources informed that of the 50 election districts, the first-level checking has started in 10, namely Bajali, Bokajan, Dibrugarh, Gohpur, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Silchar and Titabar. Meanwhile, the process has been already completed in Majuli. Sources said that during the process, 273 ballot units and 279 control units (of the EVMs) and 294 VVPATs were checked.
The machines (both the EVMs along with the VVPATs) were manufactured by the 'Electronic Corporation of India' (ECIL) — a Government of India (GoI) enterprise. The pre-poll mandatory and crucial checking of these machines is conducted by ECIL engineers in the presence of representatives of various political parties and officers of the respective districts and subdivisions.