The Election Commission in a bid to ensure free and fair polls in the State has given special training here to police officials on the handling of VVPAT. The district collector Takhur Raman Singh who is also the returning officer said VVPAT was installed with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for free and fair polls.
Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system.
It was, according to him, mandatory for the police personnel deputed in poll duty to learn about its proper handling.He also warned of any lethargy in learning it proper operation of VVPAT saying any inefficiency on their part to handle it properly would invite at least six months jail.
Police officials too, he said must have proper details of the street play and other activities undertaken by the political parties in their respective areas.The stalls of political parties he said should be allowed only 200 meter away from the polling booths.
Similarly, he said within 100 meter radius of polling booth no display of party symbol and other material that details of a political party which amounted to violation of model code of conduct.
Even he instructed them to check the vehicles with party flags and strictly stop any activity that violate the code of conduct. The day of polling he said mock polls on EVM should be carried out in all the polling booths at 6 am to ensure transparency.
Even if someone makes a claim of any error the EVM, the color the directed them to tell the voter that the EVM was temper free and it was already tested before the polling stared.
He also gave direction to the officials to take appropriate action as per the law for in case of the producing wrong information about the EVM and officials who do foul ply in the voting any point of time.