With forthcoming polls nearing, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has allotted nearly one lakh pairs of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to Odisha for conducting polls in next general elections and election to the State legislative Assembly.
And this time Odisha will conduct the simultaneous polls in 2019, utilising the latest EVMs of Electronic Corporation of India (ECIl), said official sources. Both EVMs and VVPATs will be used for conducting polls.
The ECI has allocated 96,200 pairs of EVMs (ballot units and control units) for the State and these newly manufactured EVMs will be collected from the ECIl facilities from Hyderabad and also from other States.
Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar has been informed in this regard by the ECI and in turn, the District Magistrates have been asked to get in readiness to collect the EVMs from the respective
States and districts, where EVMs are available, sources said.
The ECI has asked the respective States to be in touch with Odisha CEO for sending the EVMs and in fact the CEO Office in Odisha is continuously monitoring the developments in this regard, said sources.
Now the District Magistrates will be deputing team of senior and responsible officers to the various States and districts from where the EVMs will be collected, said a senior official.
All the District Magistrates of Odisha are in continuous touch with the CEO Office as collecting and storing these EVMs and VVPATs are very much essential and to collect these voting machines as early as possible is necessary.
The CEOs of respective States are cooperating with the State CEO in this regard and their nodal officers will be facilitating in handing over the EVMs to the teams, sources said.
The ECIl is making error free exercise of first level check under direct supervision of the district administration. The engineers of the ECIl are extending full support for the same.
After receiving the EVMs, the district officials will undergo detailed training for handling the voting machines.
Accordingly, the District Magistrates have been informed by the authorities to nominate senior officials for District level Master Trainers (DlMT).
After receiving detailed training, these officers will be providing training to the other officials, who will be handling polling.
This time authorities are planning for providing more intensive training of the polling personnel during 2018, so that they will be in full readiness for simultaneous polls in 2019.
The ECI has asked the district authorities for having adequate pool of officers for training on EVMs, so that trainer fatigue can be avoided.
Accordingly in the first phase, all Block Development Officers, Tehsildars, Sub Collectors and Deputy Collectors will be provided training. In the second phase, Additional District Magistrates and District
Magistrates will be provided training and all these trained officers will form the Team DlMT for conducting training for polling personnel, said sources.