NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Wednesday said the delivery of electronic voting machines, as well as voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, was expected well in time for deployment in the general election next year.

“There is no cause for concern as far as delivery of EVMs or VVPATs before the Lok Sabha poll is concerned. All EVMs are expected to be delivered by September 30, 2018. VVPAT delivery may take a little more time but they too will be in by November 15, 2018. Both Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) & Electronics Corporation of Indian Ltd (ECIL), the two PSUs manufacturing these machines, have the capacity to produce the 16.15 lakh VVPATs, 9.3 lakh control units and 13.95 ballot units ordered by EC. The two companies have committed to delivering these numbers by the aforesaid deadlines

and the Commission is monitoring progress on a daily basis,” a senior EC functionary told TOI.

As per an EC status report, the production of 5.88 lakh VVPAT units had been completed as on July 24, 2018, against 16.51 lakh VVPATs ordered by the Commission. Until yesterday, BEL and ECIL together had wound up the production of 8.79 lakh of the 13.95 lakh ballot units ordered and 5.61 lakh of the 9.3 lakh control units ordered.

“While there is no delay in EVM delivery and they will be in by September 30, VVPATs are expected a little late by mid-November. The delay in VVPAT delivery is not expected to affect processes like the first-level check as a cushion was built-in by EC while setting the delivery date, to factor in any time overruns,” said the EC functionary.

Another senior EC officer said that while first-level checks must start anything between 3 and 6 months ahead of polls, depending on the state, the time needed is essentially dependent on the availability of engineers. “So if we double the number of engineers , the FLC time-period would be reduced by half,” he said.

The officer said that anything between 5000-9000 of various machines ordered were being added every day. “We are

monitoring the production/delivery on a daily basis and compiling daily progress reports. There is sufficient time for the manufacturers to complete the delivery,” said the official.

“The 2019 general election will be held fully with VVPATs. There should be no doubt in this regard,” said an EC functionary.

Incidentally, though the Supreme Court has asked EC to consider using VVPATs in polls, it had not specified any deadline in this regard. The Commission has, however already committed to 100% deployment of EVMs in all future Lok Sabha and state assembly polls.

