C'garh CEC rejects Cong demand for EVM survey poll

Chief Electoral Officer Subrat Sahoo on Tuesday rejected the Chhatisgarh Congress demand for conducting a survey poll using the electronic voting machine (EVM) to create awareness among electors.

“It is only for training. Dummy name of candidates and symbols are used instead of actual name or symbol of any political party. It is just a rumour that survey polls are being conducted using EVMs or VVPAT,” Sahoo said.

He said that the EVMs-VVPAT used for training and polling are of separate series of machines.

Before polls, there is a first level checking (FLC) of EVMS in the presence of candidates and representative of political parties to ensure transparency in the process. After getting clearance for the EVMS, it is used for the actual election.

Taking cognizance of the complaints that the officials after the exhibition in Sarguja and Koriya had taken the EVMs to their homes after the exhibition, Sahoo had sought probe report from the district collector, who are also District Electoral Officers.

Sahoo said that the trainers using the EVMs have to deposit the machines in Tehsil office storeroom or treasury. They are not allowed to take the machines home. So far no seizure of EVMs has been made by police and probe is on.

The number of machines being used for the exhibition is 1,348. The exhibition has been organised in 12,300 polling centres out of 23,632. Around 15 lakh people in the village and town have taken part in the exhibition.