Cong on EVMs: ‘Govt not interested in giving EC money for VVPATs’
CEC Nasim Zaidi CEC Nasim Zaidi
As Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi wrote to the government again, seeking funds to expedite the purchase of paper trail machines before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress Monday said the BJP government is “disinterested” in giving money to the Election Commission to get VVPATs. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the controversy over EVMs as a manufactured issue, Congress spokesperson Abishek Singhvi said the BJP is “scared and fearful because the fabrication and manipulation may lie somewhere else and that is why they want to bury this issue deep.”
He recalled that the Supreme Court had in 2013 ruled that paper trail is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections. “In 30 months, this government has denied the Election Commission the funds for installation of VVPAT to accompany the 16 lakh EVMs. The Election Commission in its third letter has said that it needs Rs 3000 crore to be able to use VVPATs in the 2019 elections… And I have no doubt that for the next 30 months too, the Election Commission will not get even Rs 30 crore, leave aside Rs 3000 crore,” Singhvi said.
He said that the government’s stand is a direct violation of the Supreme Court order. “Why should the government treat it as an adversarial issue? Why is it not possible to revert to paper ballot, at least till such time you give one VVPAT accompanying one EVM? At least till that time, the paper ballot is a tried, tested and age-old method,” he said.
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