Strong rooms in different parts of city

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 5

Officials on election duty were today engaged in shifting and storing electronic voting machines (EVMs) in strong rooms.

Unprecedented security cover was thrown in and around the strong rooms. Besides, state and central forces have been deployed in the city to prevent any untoward situation.

Strong rooms have been established at Khalsa College, Government Senior Secondary School for Girls, Mall Road, Mai Bhagi Government Polytechnic, Government Medical College and other places in the city.

Elections officials have asked each candidate to submit the names of 20 party supporters to be permitted at stations in strong rooms. Supporters of each party will be allowed in strong rooms to rule out any possibility of tampering of EVMs.

The poll staff faced Herculean task to shift the EVMs last night to strong rooms. They had to work till late night hours.

The Election Commission (EC) had installed 1,972 EVMs for Assembly elections and 1,562 for Lok Sabha by-poll in the Amritsar district. The EC had also installed 386 voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) in the Majitha and 366 in the Amritsar (South) constituencies. The VSPAT is a printer-like machine attached to every EVM that allows voters to verify that their vote has been cast correctly.