india

Updated: Jun 27, 2019 21:56 IST

The Shiv Sena, an ally of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), raised the issue of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

This came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress in Rajya Sabha saying it had insulted the voters by questioning the reliability of EVMs.

Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut raised the issue during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha and asked the government about the complaints that had been received about the discrepancies in EVMs. He asked whether there has been a mismatch regarding voter turnout and votes polled data on EVMs.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there were no discrepancies. He added the Election Commission (EC) has not received any complaints regarding defects in EVMs and that the issue does not concern its operations. “This is a question about the manufacturing of EVMs and not its operations. The EC has said there are no manufacturing defects in EVMs. If there is any specific complaint, I will get the information from the EC,” he said.

Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal separately informed the upper House that the deadline for receiving suggestions regarding the draft new National Education Policy (NEP) will be extended by a month till July 31. The earlier deadline was June 30.

“The [draft NEP] report has been put in the public domain for suggestions. The draft has been prepared after discussions at all levels. And the date for submitting comments will be extended by a month,” Pokhriyal said during the Question Hour. He was responding to a question of Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Derek O’ Brien on whether the draft was prepared without holding meetings and discussions.

The TMC also raised the demand for renaming West Bengal as Bangla. TMC’s Sukhendu Shekhar Ray said that the West Bengal state assembly in July last year passed a bill to change the state’s name and that it has been pending for the Centre’s approval.