IMPHAL, October 21: The manner in which people were not allowed by government officials to take photo of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) memory chip ID no of IC and TTI no during the 1st round of EVM checking conducted today at the strong room of Thoubal DC drawn flaks from several political parties.

Addressing media persons here today at Irabot Bhavan, Dr Nara, secy of CPI stated that the act of government officials not allowing persons to capture the photos inside the strong room of the Thoubal DC is highly questionable saying that there is no point of conducting such checking if people are not allowed to satisfy themself about the EVM machine before elections.

He informed that following a notification from Thoubal DC, the 1st round checking of EVM machine was conducted today, with representatives of CPI, BJP and Trinamool Congress parties including two engineers from Bharat Electronic Company and Electronic C-Operation of India Ltd gathering at the strong room of the Thoubal DC in the presence of the DC himself.

However, the DC and officials of Election Commission of India (ECI) stopped the representatives from taking pictures of the EVM chips nos.

Considering their actions, there is a high possibility that there will be manipulation during the next elections, even as it is suspected that there were manipulations in the last assembly election of Manipur, Dr Nara alleged.

Following the conduct of the checking of the machine, the Thoubal DC asked the people gathered there to sign their signature as a formality step, which was refused by the representatives of the BJP and the CPI and left the strong room in a furious matter, he continued.

When the representatives requested the officials to let them take photos of the EVM machines inside the strong room, the request was not granted citing one of the guidelines of the ECI that no one is allowed to bring any electronic devise inside the strong room where the EVM was kept.

There, the representatives were told that if they want to take photos of the memory no of the machine, they could get from the footage of three CCTV cameras being stalled inside the strong room.

Reacting to the reply, representative of CPI Ashakumar and Ragen of Trinamool Congress left the room without signing their signatures and returned back to their party offices.

Informing that the CPI party will convene a meeting of all political parties on the EVM, Dr Nara said photos of the memory chip no of the EVM could proof about the credibility of the machine and added that his party will lodge a complaint with the ECI on the uncertain issues of EVM.