JOIN USAfter conducting voting successfully across the city, the Delhi electoral office shifts its focus on keeping the polled electronic voting machines intact, which hold the fate of the city as well as that of the candidates contesting Assembly elections.
The election office has set up 70 strong rooms spread in 14 locations across Delhi where the polled electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being stored.
These locations that are divided in nine districts include NP Girls Middle School, Gole Market in New Delhi, Veer Sawarkar (BTC) Training Centre on Pusa Road, Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya No 1, Ludlow Castle on Raj Niwas Marg, Jija Bai Industrial Training Institute for Women on August Kranti Marg, among others.
“These rooms are under the surveillance of the CCTV cameras,” said a senior official with the Delhi electoral office. Besides, there is three-tier guarding system for these strong rooms, he added.
According to the election office, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) guards have been deployed in the first-tier, which is the innermost perimeter. “One section of CAPF will guard the premises 24x7,” said the official. “For this purpose, a minimum of one platoon of CAPF has been deployed to guard strong rooms round the clock,” he added.
The second-tier has the state armed police guards securing the premises, while guards of District Executive Force have formed the third-tier, said the Delhi electoral office.
“All the contesting candidates have been informed to depute their representative to keep a close watch on security arrangement of these strong rooms. They are allowed to stay outside the outermost perimeter of the premises which enables them to view the entry points of strong rooms,” the official said.
“The counting centres will open in the presence of the representatives of the political parties contesting the Assembly elections,” the official said.