Zonal & Sector Officers imparted training on EVM/VVPAT

March 4: Though the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to notify the schedule of 2019 Lok Sabha Election, yet the state machinery is all geared up and is infact busy doing their homework in order to ensure a hassle-free poll. Along with other districts, Cachar District administration has also started the preparatory works in full swing. ECI has already completed training the State Level Master Trainers in February.

Since then, the districts have appointed and trained the Assembly Level Master Trainers (ALT). At Cachar, Sudipta Dutta Choudhury (Bapi), who happens to be a State Level Master Trainer and an officer of repute of LIC has trained the Assembly Level Master Trainers on 9 February.

After that, Cachar district administration has been sending the ALTs throughout the length and breadth of the district in order to sensitize the electorates about voting procedure in EVM/VVPAT.

On 4 March, 2019 Zonal and Sector officers were given a day-long training in the conference hall of DRDA Cachar. They were imparted training in poll process and also on EVM/VVPAT. The training was imparted by Sudeep Nath, ACS, Election Officer, Rasaraj Das, Dy.CEO, Cachar Zilla Parishad, Subhendu Saha, Salil Chakraborty, Sudarshan Gupta, Arunabha Bhattacharjee and Dr. Jaydeep Chakrabarty. State Level Master Trainer Sudipta Dutta Choudhury (Bapi) monitored the training session.

In the meantime, Deputy Commissioner, Cachar Laya Madduri has also held an interactive session with all the master trainers. She has motivated them to properly impart training to the poll parties so that on the day of poll things become easy for the poll party to handle and manage. Sudeep Nath, ACS, Election Officer and his entire team were found to perform their duties in an enthusiastic way.

The EVM training has acquired a great significance this year due to the introduction of a new machine named, Voter Verified Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT). The VVPAT is a way of giving feedback to voters using ballot-free voting system. Its purpose is to confirm the authenticity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). This arrangement reveals to the voter whether he has voted or not. VVPAT is a kind of printer connected to EVM.

When a vote is cast then it displays a receipt for 7 seconds. On this slip, the order number, name and election symbol of the candidate are displayed. Once the receipt appears, it goes into the container attached to the EVM.

The Election Commission has claimed that 100% VVPAT machine will be used in the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2019. The Commission has said that in view of the elections, the purchase process of 16.15 lakh new machines is being completed. For VVPAT machines, the EC had tied up with the Bangalore Electronic Company Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India located in Hyderabad.