Ex-bureaucrat seeks stricter EVM checks before Bihar polls

NEW DELHI - Former Delhi chief secretary Omesh Saigal Monday suggested random technical checks of electronic voting machines (EVMs) before these are assigned for assembly elections in Bihar.

A frequent critic of teh EVMs, Saigal wrote to Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi that the checks of tehse machines should be carried out before the six-phase poll in Bihar, due from Oct 21 to Nov 20.

In a number of pre-checks, Saigal sought “checking from the unique IDs if the list of machines actually sent to a particular storage place tallies with the list of machines that are actually lying there”.

There should also be random checking to see if the result of the previous election, if any, in which that machine was used tallied with the result that it shows now.

He also demanded that the unique serial numbers on the printed circuit boards of the machines should be checked to ensure that they match with the records maintained at the factory.

“There should be visual checks whether the special soldering process with which the ICs (integrated circuits) have been soldered have been tampered/replaced,” he said.

Saigal welcomed the poll panel’s decision to hold an all-party meeting on issues relating to the EVMs and also invite political parties for a pre-election check of the machines.