Journalism of Courage
State Election Commission (SEC) is facing a dearth of electronic voting machines (EVMs) for the civic and ZP elections. The state needs 90,000 machines,but at the moment the SEC has only 50,000.
The SEC that already has 25,000 machines got another 25,000 from Hyderabad-based ECIL after it placed an order for them. The total count comes to 50,000 machines,though still short of 40,000.
The SEC is in talks with the Election Commission of India to get the EVMs. Pune itself needs more than 18,000 EVMs. We will be sending our request to the EC again and we hope that things will be resolved at the earliest, said officials from the department.
The SEC is yet to decide if zilla parishad (district council) votes should be counted along with the municipal corporation votes on February 17,as demanded by BJP and Sena. The Zilla Parishad polls are on February 7.
State Election Commissioner Neela Satyanarayan had said the SEC had planned a separate date for counting of ZP polls as there were not enough EVMs. The Commission had forwarded requests for more EVMs with the Election Commission of India and the Hyderabad-based firm that makes the machines. It said if they got more EVMs before January-end,they would consider counting ZP and civic body votes on the same day.
Resident Deputy Collector Anil Pawar said they are following the present schedule and have demanded that the voting day,February 7,be declared a holiday. We have called for February 5,6 and 7 as dry days,while all police stations in the rural areas have been asked to list out sensitive areas so that the district administration can declare the sensitive booths, he said.
