Interestingly, the CP was rather seen attending the Kolkata International Book Fair, which was inaugurated on Thursday
The Election Commission of India (ECI) wrote to the controlling officer of the commissioner of Kolkata Police, Rajeev Kumar seeking an explanation about his absence from the meeting with the ECI on Thursday.
The full bench of the ECI visited Kolkata to review poll-preparedness ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. But Kumar was absent in the meeting with DMs, SPs and commissioners of police on Thursday. "The home secretary was present and said he took responsibility but I have sought an explanation from the CP's controlling officer about his absence," Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora said while talking to the media on Friday.
Interestingly, the CP was rather seen attending the Kolkata International Book Fair, which was inaugurated on Thursday.
After a stock-taking meeting with all the stakeholders — including political party representatives and administrative officials — Arora said that the commission was committed to free, fair, peaceful, transparent, ethical and inclusive elections. "In a first, Voter Variable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) will be used in the state at all polling booths along with EVM machines. Officers have been told to strictly adhere to the procedural norms and standard operating procedures about the usage, storage and transportation of the machines in all the constituencies," he said adding that VVPAT slips would be matched with EVM vote count in a randomly selected polling station of each Assembly segment of a Parliamentary constituency in the state.
On January 19, at a Brigade Parade Ground rally several political leaders alleged that since EVMs could be tampered with, paper ballots should be retained for a fair poll.
However, putting an end to all speculation, Arora said that paper ballots will not be used. "EVMs have been used for nearly two decades in our country now. VVPATs have been used recently. Political parties have the right to give their feedback, their apprehensions and their views because they are the biggest stakeholders after citizens. At the same time, we are not going back to the ballot paper days. I am not saying this as an individual. This has been the consistent policy of the ECI for quite some time and I think it will remain so. We are not returning to the days of ballot papers being snatched, muscle powers being used for the same, interminable, inordinate delays in counting etc," he said.
The representatives of all Opposition parties had complained about the prevailing violence in the state and had given suggestions for free and fair polls. "After the Gorkhaland agitation last year, we have been given to understand that for the last one year there had been no major incident. Regarding the communal incidents, each of the collectors, DMs and SPs have given us some idea about what they are doing or propose to do about the communally sensitive pockets but there is a general instruction that there is always a scope for further improvement."
Bombay HC sends notice to ECI over PIL seeking transparency in VVPAT
The Bombay HC issued a notice on Friday to the ECI over a PIL seeking directions to make VVPAT devices more transparent and error-free. The petition — filed by city resident Prashant Yadav — claims that VVPAT machines are susceptible to tampering as they depend on human interface at two levels — while uploading the application software at the manufacturing stage, and while uploading official symbols of parties into the devices at the offices of returning officers.
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