Bangalore South chosen for VVPAT system for LS polls

Bangalore, April 3: Bangalore South is among the seven constituencies in the country chosen by the Election Commission to introduce Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system on an experimental basis.

"During this Lok Sabha elections, this machine (VVPAT) will be used in seven places, Bangalore South has been chosen from Karnataka," Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told reporters here. Others include Patna Sahib in Bihar, Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Chennai Central in Tamil Nadu, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Jadavpur in West Bengal.

The EC has chosen seven constituencies for the VVPAT system

In VVPAT system, when voter presses button for the candidate of his choice in the Electronic Voting Machine, a paper ballot exhibiting the name and symbol on which the vote has been cast will be printed, and the voter can verify it. The slip will detach after few seconds and gets dropped in to a secret box attached to the machine.

VVPAT system was earlier used in Delhi Assembly polls. Explaining why Bangalore South was chosen, Jha said it has the least number of polling stations which is about 1,925. "On the basis of the availability of VVPAT machine, the Election Commission had directed to select the constituency with less polling stations- so Bangalore south was chosen."

"VVPAT will be used in 1,925 polling stations for which 2,455 machines have been manufactured by Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) and supplied to us. Required training to officials has been given in this regard," he added.

PTI