NTR, Krishna Districts EVMs, VVPATs Moved to Strong Rooms

 Vijayawada: Electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs) used for recording votes during the general elections in NTR and Krishna districts on Monday have been stored in strong rooms.

The moving of the equipment had been carried out under the supervision of Krishna district collector D.K. Balaji and NTR district collector Dr. S. Dilli Rao.

The strong rooms have been locked and sealed. They will be guarded by central armed police forces and police.

No one will be allowed into the strong rooms without the prior permission of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena.

Krishna collector Balaji said the voting equipment used in all seven segments of the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency have been locked up in a strong room at Krishna University in Machilipatnam.

NTR district collector Dilli Rao said voting equipment utilised in all seven assembly constituencies of Vijayawada parliament seat have been stored at the Nova and Nimra Engineering Colleges at Jupudi in Ibrahimpatnam mandal of the district.

Authorities carried out locking up of the EVMs and VVPATs in the presence of the contesting candidates. Candidates have been issued passes in case they wish to keep an eye on the strong rooms.