Date:04/02/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/02/04/stories/2004020412590500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

`Officials ready for simultaneous polls'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 3. The election authorities in the State are `well prepared' for conduct of simultaneous polls to the Assembly and the Lok Sabha even if additional electronic voting machines (EVM) are not supplied in time.

The Chief Electoral Officer, M. Narayana Rao, told reporters here on Tuesday that the State would require about 70,000 more EVMs for simultaneous polls. In case the supply of additional machines was not possible, the job can be done without difficulty using ballot boxes for the Lok Sabha.

The State requires a total of 1.4 lakh EVMs for simultaneous polls with each polling station needing two machines and with 25 per cent of the total requirement to be kept aside as standby. It has 67,000 EVMs. The Election Commission sanctioned 5,000 more recently and they were expected during March, he said.

Mr. Narayana Rao said the ECIL unit at Hyderabad and Bharat Electronics Limited at Bangalore were the only undertakings in the country making EVMs and as such, there might be some delay in producing large numbers within the limited time available.

He said they would need nearly 2.8 lakh polling personnel calculated at the rate of five for each polling station apart from security staff.