VVPAT slips create flutters in at Atmakur

Nellore:  Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips found in a government school in Atmakur town created flutters among local population on any possibility of negli-gence on the part of election staff on Monday. Students of local government high schools found bunches of slips in the school premises and the teachers informed the issue to the media. Revenue officials rushed to the spot and observed the slips.

Returning Officer S China Ramudu, interacting with the media, said that they were not slips of regular voting. Normally, they randomize the Electronic Voting Machines just before com-mencement of actual polling process and discard them. But, he said, they have to be pre-served for not creating any such suspicions.

He also checked they were only part of machine testing and not connected to the polls. Some persons deliberately created misapprehensions on the issue, he explained. JC 2 Madhusudana Rao also verified the slips.