Taking serious note of the apprehensions expressed by the Aam Aadmi party in relation to the security if strong rooms, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to furnish a compliance report from each assembly segment of the state on the security of the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The poll watchdog has shot off a communique to the state’s election authorities instructing it for “strict compliance” of its instructions “in letter and spirit”.
Subsequently, a two-member ECI team has started its two-day Punjab visit to check security arrangements of the strong rooms at selected districts and besides meeting the political party representatives.
Reiterating its instructions, the ECI has asserted that barring natural calamity, the Returning Officer (RO) or any other officer will not enter the inner perimeter of the strong-room where the EVMs have been kept without the prior permission of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) through the District Election Officers (DEOs).
It has also instructed to bar, by raising barricades, any human or vehicular movement in the 20-foot periphery of the strong-room building.
Polling in the state was held on February 4, followed by the repoll on February 9. The counting of votes will be done, with other states, on March 11 and results declared the same day.
The EC had already instructed to put double locks on the strong-rooms and the keys to be kept by the Returning Officer and the District Electoral Officer (DEO).
It had instructed a two-layered security of the strong-room buildings, with inner periphery guarded by central paramilitary forces (CPF) and the outer security ring to be formed by the state armed police.
In the constituency-wise compliance report, it has sought from the state CEO, the EC has asked whether all this is being done, apart from ensuring uninterrupted power supply to the strong-room premises and allowing candidates' representatives to keep a close watch on the strong-room entrance.
A day before, AAP had approached the poll panel in Delhi alleging “breach of security” at the strong-rooms. The party had sought strict security of strong-rooms. The party earlier moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this connection.
AAP delegation, led by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, had submitted a memorandum urging the ECI to act against the officials involved in the alleged security breach at strong-rooms.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Monday accused state officials of trying to move EVMs from a strongroom in Punjab. Officials, however, denied the charge.
The memorandum submitted to the CEC read that on February 6, the Returning Officer of Gill constituency entered the premises of strongroom unaccompanied either by candidates or their representatives.
Another similar incident took place on Monday where the Returning Officer of Nabha constituency in Patiala allowed four people to enter the storage campus on the pretext of collecting certain documents. "Instead, they moved some EVMs kept in steel boxes," it said.
"The lackadaisical approach with which the Returning Officers in Punjab are following the instruction of May 5, 2015, notification -- which lists out instructions regarding the storage and safety of EVMs -- it merits your urgent attention," the AAP memorandum said.
AAP had alleged that the Nabha Returning Officer (RO) allowed some people to remove EVMs kept in a college building in Patiala.
However, Patiala District Election Officer Ramvir Singh clarified that the EVMs lying on the premises were the reserve machines for the already held 2015 municipal polls in the state and that the machines were being removed to make space for the counting on March 11.
Following the episode, the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer has asked District Election Officers to execute planning relating to setting up of counting centres after March 1. A daily report with regard to compliance of the ECI guidelines on EVMs stored in strongrooms have also been sought, official said.
AAP had also accused the Returning Officer of Gill assembly segment in ludhiana of tampering with EVMs kept in the strongroom at Punjab Agricultural University, ludhiana.