EVMs cannot be tampered: Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer

A day after a Karnataka minister opposed use of EVMs brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in coming assembly polls, state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar today said there was a robust system in place and no one can tamper with the electronic voting machines.

There need not be any apprehensions about the EVMs or the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballot less voting system, he told reporters here.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy had yesterday said EVMs brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh should not be used in Karnataka to ensure a fair and impartial election.
Talking to reporters, he had said these EVMs might have been tampered with.

Also, some other Congress leaders have been raising apprehensions over impartiality of the coming elections in the state, saying a majority of EVMs required for the coming polls were being brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

Kumar said the central government or the state or union territory governments or their machinery had no jurisdiction or domain or role in the production, allocation, transportation, storage or operation of the EVMs or VVPATs.

"There has never been any consultation or involvement, whether direct or indirect in the matter of EVM/VVPAT management, operation or deployment with any government. All the decisions regarding the use and deployment of EVMs and VVPATs are taken solely by the Election Commission," he added.

According to the details provided by the CEO, the total number of Balloting Units (BU) and Control Units (CU) required for Karnataka elections are 85,650 and 66,700 respectively while 73,700 VVPATs will be used.

Of these, 27,000 BUs, 20,000 CUs and 13,000 VVPATs will be brought from Gujarat. On the other hand, BUs and CUs brought from Uttar Pradesh are 40,650 and 31,700.Rest will be pooled from BEL, Jharkhand, Maharasthra and Tamil Nadu.

This time around, Karnataka will see 60,700 fresh VVPATs from BEL being used in the election, the CEO said.