Election Commission to seek Rs 2,000 crore for VVPAT system

It will be seeking the money from the government for introducing a voter authentication system, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Updated on: Nov 8, 2013, 23:01:54 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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After getting the Supreme Court nod, the Election Commission will soon be seeking about Rs 2,000 crore from the government for introducing a voter authentication system called Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) before 2014 general elections.

The commission will need about 14 lakh VVPAT machines to introduce the system in all 543 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2014. However, the commission is apprehensive that so many machines can be produced and testing them in such a short duration of time.

Although the commission is looking at making optimal use of VVPAT machines in the 2014 general elections, it will tell the Supreme Court that covering all Parliamentary constituencies will not be possible before 2019 general elections.

According to sources, smaller Parliamentary constituencies across India would be selected for introduction of VVPAT so that voters around the country can "feel" the new system. The commission has already ordered 20,000 machines and more would be sought once the government approves funds for the same.

A price fixation committee has been constituted in the law ministry, the commission's administrative body, to determine the price of the VVPAT system. The initial price of a machine was about Rs 13,000 but because of fall in value of rupee, the new price is estimated to be around Rs 18,000 per machine.

One reason for the high cost is that key parts of the system are imported. Another is that only two public sector companies - Bharat Electronic Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited - can manufacture the VVPAT system that can be integrated with the electronic voting machines. A commission's technical expert group had certified machines manufactured by these companies.

The system, which allows the voter to see a paper receipt of the vote cast in the electronic voting machines, had been successfully tested in a by-poll in Nagaland. Chief election commissioner VS Sampath had announced that it would be introduced in 10 assembly constituencies in Mizoram and one each in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The new system allows a voter to challenge his or her vote on basis of the paper receipt for the first time. As per a new rule, the booth presiding officer will have to record the dissent of the voter, which would have to be taken into account at time of counting.

As introduction of VVPAT system results in increase in voting time, the number of polling stations have to be increased so that polling can be completed within the stipulated time. The commission estimate that the voter trail system will lead to 20% increase in polling stations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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