New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected a media report where it was said that ECI has received only 22 percent of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.
ECI said VVPAT deliveries are delayed as the Technical Experts Committee on EVMs appointed by the Commission analyses the technology stabilization issues in the initial batches and incorporates essential design improvements. Even then due to continuous monitoring at the highest level, including personal visits by the Commission of all the production units, all VVPATs shall also be delivered well before end of Nov 2018, well within the time required for making pre-poll preparations.
In order to meet the requirement of VVPATs for 100% saturation of all polling stations for the Lok Sabha Elections in 2019, the Commission placed an order of 16.15 lakh VVPATs to be produced by the PSU manufacturers namely Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad in May 2017. Till date, 5.88 lakh units have been produced by the PSUs (4.36 lakh by BEL and 1.52 lakh by ECIL), which is 36% of the total quantity to be supplied.
