First level checking of EVMs to be used for Municipal elections kick-starts in Cachar

Jan. 31: In the weekly Assam Cabinet held on 27 January, it was decided that the State Election Commission to schedule and conduct Municipal Elections before 10 March 2022. Further, the Cabinet meeting held on 3 December gave its consent to facilitate use of EVMs in municipal board elections.

It is in this backdrop that the districts have started its preparation for the upcoming municipal election although the poll schedule has not yet been announced by the State Election Commission. On Monday, the Cachar district administration too started its preparation for this purpose. The First Level Checking (FLC) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to be used for Municipal Elections is currently underway at ISTT, Silchar in the presence of Magistrates. DDC Rajib Roy, Master Trainers, Magistrates and other officials of the concerned department were demonstrated the EVMs by the Engineers of ECIL during the FLC. As per sources, the FLC will continue till 2 February.

Six college teachers were deputed as Master Trainers by the district administration for smooth conduct of the ensuing Municipal elections. They are: Dr Apratim Nag & Joydeep Paul of GC College, Sudarshan Gupta & Arunabha Bhattacharjee of Radhamadhab College, Dr Gongesh Bhattacharjee of JN Singh College and Dr Saumitra Nath from Silchar Polytechnic. Further SB Dutta Choudhury, Development Officer of LIC was also drafted to liaison with the Master Trainers and provide necessary support to them.

The First Level Checking (FLC) of electronic voting machines is being done before elections. This is done sufficiently in advance so that all checks are carried out without any undue haste in the presence of representatives of political parties. The FLC has to be completed before finalisation of the list of contesting candidates in an election. The work includes removal of address tags, ballot papers, cleaning of superscription on control unit and balloting unit of electronic voting machines and clearing of earlier poll data. Besides, physical verification of carrying cases, control unit, ballot unit, connecting cable, connector, and latches is done to ensure no breakages.

It needs mention here that only ECIL and Bharat Electronics Limited engineers are authorised to carry out test prescribed by the manufacturers to confirm that all components of the EVM are original. They will certify that all the components of EVMs are original. If any EVM is found to be defective, it will be kept aside and then taken to the factory of the company for repairs.