UP seeks 30,000 additional EVMs for polls

Lucknow, Apr 5 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh government has sought an additional 30,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to cope with the large number of candidates filing nominations for the seven-phase Assembly elections starting from Saturday.

State additional CEO Mritunjay Narain said that out of a total of 30,000 EVMs sought, 15,000 would be supplied by ECIL, Hyderabad and rest 15,000 would come from Bharat Electricals Ltd (BEL), Bangalore.

He said the state had already taken additional 15,000 EVMs from Chhattisgarh and another 15,000 from Gujarat.

Additional EVMs were required as in several constituencies, there were more than 16 candidates which needed two EVMs.

In a directive, EC today said a separate queue should be formed for handicapped people in polling booths.

The Commission, clarifying the norms for moving of the convoy of star campaigners, said that only three vehicles were allowed excluding the security ones. ''In case there are more than three vehciles, then it should be divided in groups of three vehicles each and their should at least be a gap of 200 meters between each of the three vehicles,'' Mr Narain said.

UNI