EC in process of ensuring VVPAT allocation to 10 lakh polling booths

Assuring timely allocation of electronic voting machines (EVM) for the 2019 general elections, the Election Commission on Sunday said it was in the process of ensuring allocation of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) for over 10 lakh polling stations.

The mandatory First Level Checks and training to District Officers are being ensured to meet the requirement of 100 per cent VVPATs across approximately 10.6 lakh polling stations for the Lok Sabha Election in 2019, it said.

With around 22.3 lakh ballot Units, 16.3 lakh control units and nearly 17.3 lakh VVPATs to be used for the forthcoming elections, the poll panel said it is consistently reviewing the status of production and supply of EVMs and VVPATs by the public sector units.

The poll panel on September 26 had said that it has enhanced the requirement of additional VVPATs from 125 per cent to 135 per cent considering the trend of the failure rate of the machines in past elections, besides adopting improved hardware for them.