ECIL to supply 67,000 EVMs to West Bengal

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 19. The Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) is supplying 67,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs) to West Bengal at the behest of the Election Commission, to be used in the coming Assembly election.

Likewise, Tamil Nadu will get 68,000 EVMs through the Bharat Electronics Limited.

Disclosing this at a press conference here today, Mr.V.H. Ron, chairman and MD of the ECIL, said the ECIL had earlier supplied 75,000 EVMs. The improved version was equipped with two memory components so that it could store data in four places instead of two. It would help in tiding over crisis in case one component broke down.

The Election Commission needed one million machines and the ECIL product was state-of-the-art, user-friendly, paperless, trouble- free and tamper-proof, and allowed instant counting. The order was placed three months ago and 45,000 machines had already been sent to West Bengal. By this month-end, the rest would be supplied.

The EVMs made the election process simpler and speedier and the huge expenditure involved in printing, storing and transportation of ballot paper could be avoided. Being reusable by erasing votes recorded in the earlier poll and priced at Rs.10,000 each, the EVMs would prove most cost-effective.

It ensured total secrecy of data and facilitated quick and accurate counting. The EVM had been designed to collect, record, store, count and display voting data. It incorporated a microchip that had fused firmware, which could not be altered. In case of booth capture, the presiding officer could disable the machine by pressing the ``close'' button.

A maximum of 300 votes could only be polled an hour to ensure the arrival of law and order machinery. The devices could not be duplicated as all the interface modules were custom-made hybrid circuits. No one could vote twice as the machine would not accept the second vote. The EVMs could be used for up to 64 candidates and it also provided for printing of voting data for legal verification, in case of election disputes.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : BJP 'rider' to tie-up with Trinamool
Next     : Contributors for Gujarat earthquake relief