Briefing reporters after a meeting, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Rs 3,173 crore has been approved to acquire 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines to cover all polling stations.
To silence the Opposition’s outcry over alleged manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Election Commission’s proposal to buy the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) to be attached to them. Briefing reporters after a meeting, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Rs 3,173 crore has been approved to acquire 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines to cover all polling stations.
Welcoming the decision, the Election Commission (EC), which had sent 11 letters to the government urging it to expedite the proposal, said it will ensure the total compliance of the orders of the Supreme Court and its commitment to use VVPATs with every EVM at all polling stations in the country in the 2019 general elections.
Jaitley said the decision taken by the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should satisfy the Opposition parties that rushed to the EC to demand that all future elections be held using the paper trail with the EVMs.The Opposition parties had accused the Modi government of ignoring repeated reminders by the EC for funds to buy the VVPAT machines, as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2013.
The Congress took credit for the government’s action, saying it was due to the Opposition knocking on the doors of SC that the Centre approved the purchase of the machines. Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said the Centre took the decision only after it resorted to a campaign to bring in transparency in the electoral system.
In 2013, the SC has asked the EC to give a tentative time frame by which it can use VVPAT machines in all polling stations and ordered the use of VVPATs in phases so that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections can be held with the use of these machines.
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