Rain water enters room with EVMs in Madurai

Rain water entered a room at a counting centre in the city where electronic voting machines used in the April 24 Lok Sabha polls here were kept, prompting authorities to unlock the room seal and clean it up.

District Collector-cum-Election Officer for Madurai Lok Sabha constituency L Subramanian opened the seal of the room in the presence of the candidates last night and ordered cleaning of the water that had stagnated in a corner, officials said today.

It is suspected that the water came inside through the windows and doors of the old building. The Collector had given instructions to cover the windows properly so that there would not be any leakage.

The Collector rushed to the counting centre at Government Medical College here late last night along with Commissioner of Police and IG, Sanjay Mathur following reports that floor of the room had been drenched in water due to heavy rains two days ago.

Following apprehensions raised by DMK candidate V Velusamy that the EVMs might have been damaged in the incident, the Collector today said EVMs were stored in a safe place and properly secured against rain water.

"We have stored the EVMs in such a way that they would not get affected by lightning or rain waters. The EVMS are kept in boxes and secured properly. There is no chance for any damage," officials said.
Velusamy, however, said that any damage to EVMs would be known only on May 16 when counting of votes will take place.

He expressed shock that EVMs had been stored in a place where rain water was "leaking" and expressed his doubt that the lightning that struck near the medical college, where a student died, would have affected the machines also.