ECI reps visit Kadapa district over authentication of votes

Kadapa: Following allegations from the political parties over the slips, which were meant to authenticate votes to the political party, a four-member committee, including Under Secretary OP Sahani, Electronic Voting Machine(EVM) V.Katara from Election Commission of India(ECI), Chief Engineer from Bharath Electronic Limited(BEL) E Srinivasa Rao and State Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) Vijayanandh visited the district on Friday.

They discussed the authentication issue with Collector CH Harikiran and collected 7 instruments, including 3 EVMs and slips from the strong room and seized them in the presence of political party leaders. Speaking the occasion, Under-Secretary ECI OP Sahani said that such kind of complaints reported in 8 places from 6 states in the entire country, and among them, one complaint reported only from Rajampet Parliamentary constituency in Andhra Pradesh. EVM consultant V Katara said it would be keenly examined whether it was a technical failure or a human error, and a detail report should be submitted to the government very soon.

It may be recalled that in the recent elections, as many as 384 ballot papers were allocated to the booth number 165 at Kannayyagaripalle village of Railway Kodur assembly segment comes under Rajampet Parliamentary constituency. During the Random checking of VV Pads, the officials found 377 ballot papers against the allocation of 384 recorded appeared on the VV Pad screen. The remaining 7 were not traced. In this backdrop, District Collector CH Harikiran brought the issue to the notice of the Election Commission of India, and the representatives came to the district on Friday.