EVMs security should be assigned to Army or CRPF: Telangana Congress

Reuters photo

Hyderabad: The Congress in Telangana Thursday demanded that security of strong rooms, where Electronic Voting Machines used in the Lok Sabha polls are kept, be assigned either to the Army or CRPF.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy asked the Election Commission to look into the need for special security measures at all strong rooms across Telangana.

"Since the votes will be counted on May 23, 2019, ie. after 42 days, special measures are needed to ensure that EVMs remain safe, untouched and inaccessible from all kinds of tampering or manipulation," he said.

Reddy claimed that serious allegations of EVM tampering or manipulation were levelled during the Legislative Assembly elections held in December last.

He demanded that the responsibility of security of strong rooms be assigned to the Army or CRPF.

Local police should be prohibited to access the strong rooms, the Congress leader said.

Their role must be confined to providing basic logistic support.

He also sought permission to the recognised political parties to deploy their cadre at strong rooms for vigilance.

Reddy demanded that high-security network jammers be installed around all strong rooms to protect them from "possible wireless hacking of EVMs."

"CCTV footage of all booths of polling day and also the footage to be recorded at strong rooms till counting day must be preserved.

All spare EVMs, which were not used in polling, should be either sent to other States for next phases of polling or sealed," he said.