Virbhadra fears for safety of EVMs, writes to Election Comm

State Congress Chief Virbhadra Singh on Sunday shot off a letter to Election Commission to beef up security at store rooms where EVMs are kept.

Shimla: Fearing for the safety of sealed Electronic Voting Machines, in which fate of the November 4 Himachal Pradesh polls is kept, state Congress chief Virbhadra Singh today shot off a letter to Election Commission to beef up security at store rooms where EVMs are kept. In a letter addressed to chief election commissioner (CEC), Singh expressed his concern about safety of EVMs kept under security for a period of nearly seven weeks in different parts of the state.

There is strong apprehension of "foul play" by the ruling the BJP keeping in view the level of violation of Model Code of Conduct by the party, the Congress leader alleged in the letter. "No doubt the CEC has made elaborate arrangements to keep the EVMs under CCTV vigil and guarded by central paramilitary forces and thirteen ITBP special task force personnel have reportedly been deployed for 24X7 surveillance till the date of counting on December 20, these arrangements are not satisfactory to ensure foolproof security," Singh has said. "This seven week long period has virtually turned into period of continuous anxiety and tension for the candidates other than those of the ruling party as they are apprehensive of some mischief by the ruling party," Singh said. He also expressed his unhappiness over the use of official vehicles, beacon lights, flags etc by the ministers and other political dignitaries belonging to BJP while model code of conducts was still enforced in the state. Singh also expressed serious concern over frequent visits of chief minister and minister to melas and other function as chief guest in "utter violation" of code of conduct. He has asked the CEC to issue immediate instructions to the state government to stop misuse of official position and machinery. Massive recruitments were undertaken just before the elections and hundreds of large misleading advertisements extolling the alleged achievements of the government were issued at the expense of the public exchequer spending crores of rupees. PTI