Officials conducted a sudden inspection of a strongroom where electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been stored on Madurai Medical College premises on Wednesday night following suspicion that water entered the room due to the rain that lashed the city in the evening.
Sources said officials on duty noticed water coming out of the strongroom on the second floor of the building where the EVMs had been kept, and immediately alerted the Election officials.
The strongroom contained the EVMs used in over 260 polling booths at the Melur Assembly segment during the April 24 Lok Sabha elections.
District Collector and Returning Officer of the Madurai parliamentary constituency L. Subramanian, candidates of political parties such as the AIADMK, DMK, CPI (M), AAP and the DMDK, and a few independent candidates arrived at the spot at 9 p.m. The seal of the strongroom was removed and the EVMs were checked in their presence. But no damage to the EVMs was reported after the inspection.
Speaking to media persons after the inspection, DMK candidate V. Velusamy said: “The EVMs are extremely sensitive to water and there should have been adequate safety measures in place to guard them against such sudden natural disturbances.”
The EVMs had been sealed in the strongrooms in Madurai Medical College on April 25, a day after the polling.
A three-tier security cover was put in place and the EVMs were supposed to remain in the sealed strongrooms till the counting of votes on May 16.
