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Law Commission: EVM needs over Rs 4,500 crores for conducting elections together
Law Commission: EVM needs over Rs 4,500 crores for conducting elections together: Details, Highlights
The Law Commission of India has informed that after the upcoming elections of Lok Sabha and State Legislative assemblies together, it would be worth more than Rs 4,500 crore to purchase new EVMs (Electronic voting machine) and Paper Trail machines.
The Law Commission in its draft report stated that the Election Commission (EC) has informed that about 10,60,000 polling stations will be set up for the 2019 general elections.
According to the draft report, "EC has informed that if elections are held simultaneously, then there is a shortage of about 12.9 lakh ballot units, 9.4 lakh control units and about 12.3 lakhs VVPATs (voter-verifiable paper audit trail machines or paper trail machines)
ECI further informed that as of now there is a shortfall of about 12.9 lakh ballot units, 9.4 lakh control units, and about 12.3 lakh if simultaneous elections are to be held.
According to it, an electronic voting machine (EVM), which includes a control unit (CU), a ballot unit (BU) and a VVPAT, costs about Rs 33,200.
Thus, the Election Commission has informed that an expenditure of about Rs 4,555 crore will be incurred on the procurement of EVMs for an imminent simultaneous election
The Election Commission said that the expenditure has been calculated on the basis of the prevailing rates.
If the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls are held together, no extra expenditure will be involved, except for an additional EVM for each polling station and additional election material such as stationary.
At larger polling stations, additional polling staff may be required in view of an additional EVM, the draft report said.
