Government To Buy New Voting Machines With Paper Trail
The Union Cabinet has decided to order 16.15 lakh new paper trail machines for voting even as opposition parties demand return to ballot papers while raising concerns over possible tampering with electronic voting machines.
The Cabinet approved procurement of voter verifiable paper audit trail machines (VVPAT) for the 2019 general election from Bharat Electronics Ltd. and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. for Rs 3,173 crore, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.
A VVPAT machine functions like a printer which is attached to the ballot unit and is kept inside the voting compartment. When the voter presses the button against the name of the candidate of his choice, the unit generates a paper slip. It contains the name, serial number and symbol of the chosen candidate. The voter can see the slip through a screened window for seven seconds, before it falls into a sealed drop box.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) massive victory in the recent Uttar Pradesh elections, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati had alleged EVM tampering, a charge that the Election Commission rejected. The party also moved the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the accuracy of voting machines.
The new machines will be purchased during 2017-18 and 2018-19, and will be procured by September 2018. “The cost of acquiring (VVPATs) will be Rs 3,173.47 crore and this expenditure will be spread across two financial years, and the Centre will spend it through its Budget,” Jaitley told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
If all these machines are procured by September 2018, then all polling booths in subsequent elections will have electronic voting machines along with these paper trail machines, he added.
The government will allocate Rs 1,600 crore in the current financial year in its revised estimates for meeting the cash outgo for purchasing EVMs (control units and ballot units) and VVPAT units, and the remaining amount will be spent in the next financial year.
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