Four engineers in process of checking devices
the goan I network
PANAJI
Making the announcement, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Narayan Navti said engineers from the machine’s manufacturing company are currently doing the testing and will take four days for completion.
“Today, 2,400 VVPAT machines have come to Goa. In all, we have 2,542 VVPAT machines and there are currently four engineers from the company who will inspect it and reseal them till the elections. Goa will be the first State to have a 100 percent VVPAT use for elections,” he said.
Manufacturers, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) had already checked, verified and sealed 142 VVPAT machines. Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that are also being used in addition to the VVPAT machines have already been checked and are currently kept sealed.
Goa with its 40 constituencies has a total of 1,642 polling stations. Generally, 30 percent extra machines are supplied to the State but Navti informed that the State had received an additional 50 percent of machines. “This is because the failure rate is high with VVPAT machines, around 35 percent. The measure will therefore help to avoid any failures,” he said.
Navti also added that three election observers had already come to the State. It is expected that the State will welcome 20 general observers, eight expenditure observers and five police observers.
It is also likely that three Election Commission officials will come to the State on January 22 to check on the preparedness of the election process.
It was also revealed that the code of conduct would have no relevance on the implementation of the seventh pay commission and will go ahead as planned on January 31, as the decision to implement was taken before the model code of conduct.
On the issue of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s comment, the commission has yet to receive a district election officer report with proof of the comments. So far, there has yet to be any proof that Kejriwal asked audiences at a rally to take money from other parties, but to vote for AAP.
