Ready with new voting machines to maintain paper record: EC

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission today told the Supreme Court it has approved improvised version of EVMs to maintain paper record of each vote and these can be used in elections once the Centre and political parties endorse them.

The Commission submitted before a bench of justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi said that trial of Vote Verifier Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in EVMs has been done and the machines could be incorporated in elections after the Centre approves and provides funds for their manufacturing.

Senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the Commission, said 13 lakh VVPAT machines would be needed for general elections and Rs 1692 crore would be required the purpose.

He said the new machines cannot be used in the coming Karnataka state assembly elections but the commission would convene a meetings of all political parties after the polls to use the EVMs in subsequent elections.

The apex court was hearing a plea of Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy seeking direction to the poll panel to ensure that EVMs should have a paper trail and issue a receipt to each voter.

Swamy submitted that the Election Commission must ensure that the new machines are used in the bye-election to be held in June.

The Commission, however, clarified that paper receipts would not be given to voters and but collected in a box.