No wrong transportation of EVMs: Poll officials

Chandigarh, May 21 (IANS) There has been no illegal transportation of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Punjab, election officials here said on Tuesday.

Refuting reports on social media about the transportation of EVMs in Phagwara town, a senior official told IANS that all the EVMs used during Sunday's voting in the state have been stored safely as per the guidelines of the Election Commission.

He said all arrangements have been made, including foolproof security, to conduct the counting of ballots at designated centres on May 23.

Issuing a statement about the Phagwara video, which has gone viral, Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju clarified that nothing wrong or out of rules had not happened.

He said that it was being reported that a man on voting day was moving near Senior Secondary School in Bhanoke carrying EVMs. It was ascertained after investigations that this man was Balwinder Kumar, who had been appointed in charge by the Returning Officer of Hoshiarpur and he had nine polling stations under him, he added.

Raju said that Kumar had been provided two complete sets of EVMs in a GPS fitted car to exchange the machines in case of any discrepancy during voting at any of these nine booths.

Videographer Manish Kumar was also present in the car carrying EVMs.

Raju said that a similar case had been reported in Jalandhar too in which it had been allegedly said that some people with laptops had entered a counting centre.

In this case too it had been found that those persons were members of counting staff and had come to take part in training.

Punjab voters voted to elect all their 13 Lok Sabha MPs on May 19.