Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Kolkata, Nov 20 (IANS) As West Bengal prepares for the crucial assembly elections next year, training for checking electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units will begin from Friday.
Engineers from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) will conduct the session, which will be attended by EVM and warehouse officers from all the districts of the state.
A four-member central team of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which is currently on a four-day visit to West Bengal to review the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR), is also expected to participate in the first day of the training session on Friday.
According to an official in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the requirement of EVMs and VVPATs in the 2026 assembly elections will be much higher than the previous elections, as there is an increase of about 17 per cent in the number of polling stations compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly elections.
“Generally, the total requirement of EVMs and VVPAT machines is calculated on the number of booths and 30 per cent reserve. As per that calculation, the total requirement of EVM machines would be around 1.30 lakh and the same number of VVPAT machines,” the official said.
Explaining the reason behind the increase in the number of booths, the official said that, as per the ECI directive, this time the total number of voters at a booth should not exceed 1,200, and hence, to accommodate this, the number of booths had to be increased.
There are three stages of checking of EVM machines. The first step is to see if the display on the machine shows “zero” after the machine is turned on. The second step is to check whether all the buttons of the machines are working properly or not.
The third step is to check whether the vote was registered in favor of the symbol pressed or not.
–IANS
Source/SKP