VVPAT devices delayed; EC not ready for LS polls

The Election Commission is not yet ready to hold parliamentary elections as the production and delivery of the VVPAT devices got delayed and would be completed only by the end of November.

The EC on Wednesday said the delivery of new VVPAT devices required for the next Lok Sabha polls had got delayed as the technical experts had sought improvements in the designs after analysing the initial batches of the gadgets.

The poll-panel, however, added that notwithstanding the delay, the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad would deliver all the VVPATs by the end of November.

The poll-panel, however, said that even if it received all the VVPATs from the manufacturers by the end of November, it would have enough time for preparation for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

The EC statement came amid speculation over the possibility of the Lok Sabha polls being advanced and held along with the state Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram towards the end of this year.

The poll-panel said the BEL and ECIL had already delivered 36% of the VVPATs ordered by the commission in May 2017 and the remaining would be delivered within the next four months.

The commission had, in May 2017, announced that it would henceforth deploy VVPATs along with the Electronic Voting Machines in all the polling stations, not only for the state Assembly elections, but also for the parliamentary polls.

The poll-panel had made the announcement after the ruling BJP's landslide victories in Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and a few other states had prompted the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Aam Aadmi Party and other Opposition parties to question the credibility of the EVMs.

To meet the requirement of the additional VVPATs to be deployed during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the EC had in May 2017 placed orders with the ECIL and BEL to manufacture and deliver 16.15 lakh paper trail devices. The BEL and the ECIL so far delivered 4.36 lakh and 1.52 lakh VVPATs, respectively.