Voting machines tamper proof: Election Commission to Panthers Party

New Delhi, Sep 2: The Election Commission today rejected suggestions that Electronic Voting Machines being sent to Jammu and Kashmir for the coming Assembly polls were manufactured in Gujarat and have been manipulated.

In a letter to J and K Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh, the EC said the EVMs are not manufactured by any Gujarat-based company. It also said the voting machines are tamper proof and there is no scope of manipulating it due to "inbuilt" safeguards.

The poll body said the EVMs were manufactured by two PSUs-- Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad.

Singh also wanted to know whether there is a guarantee that EVMs will not be "misused and manipulated" to rig polls in J and K. The EC, in its August 28 letter said, the EVMs are "completely tamper proof and cannot be manipulated at any stage owing to its technical and administrative safeguards".

A few days ago Bhim Singh had sent a letter to Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath, saying that "importing Gujarat-manufactured EVMs to J and K shall prove counterproductive".

PTI