The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the purchase of 16,15,000 VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) units that leave behind a paper trail after a voter presses a button in an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). One VVPAT machine, an official statement said, would cost Rs. 19,650.
Last week, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi urged the Law Ministry for an urgent release of funds, given the “prevailing environment”, to facilitate procurement of VVPAT machines for the conduct of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters on Wednesday, "the Prime Minister felt that unnecessary and manufactured controversy have been raised over EVMs after the recent Assembly election results"".
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Mr. Jaitley said. "If you lose and blame machines, that doesn't make the machines bad."
More voices against EVMs
Amid growing protests by Opposition parties against the use of EVMs, particularly without the paper trail units, Mr. Zaidi said the Commission felt that the process of procurement of VVPAT machines could not be delayed any longer, given the prevailing environment.
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Over 16 lakh VVPATs would be required, at an estimated cost of Rs.3,173.47 crore, to cover all the polling stations in next Lok Sabha polls.
The Election Commission had informed the government that if the order for the machines was not placed by February, it would become difficult for the manufacturers to supply them by September 2018, to meet the requirement of the next general elections.
The Commission also placed on record the Supreme Court’s direction to state the rough schedule within which the entire system could be introduced, subject to the grant of sanction and release of funds. The machines can be manufactured within 30 months from the date of release of funds, the Commission said.
A letter from the Commission said that it stood fully committed to deploying VVPATs along with EVMs in all future elections so that transparency of electoral process is enhanced, integrity of the voting preserved and the voters’ confidence in the process further strengthened.
The Commission recently received a memorandum from 16 parties demanding that the paper ballot system be reintroduced for greater transparency. The Bahujan Samaj Party, the AAP and the Congress have alleged the tampering of the voting machines. The Samajwadi Party has also raised doubts.
The Commission had given about a dozen reminders to the government seeking funds for the paper trail machines. The CEC last year also wrote to the Prime Minister on the issue.