Photo: MintNew Delhi: Citing “prevailing environment”, chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi has urged the government to speed up release of funds for timely procurement of paper trail machines so that these can be deployed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission would need over 16 lakh paper trail machines to cover all polling stations in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The voters see voter-verifiable paper audit trail slip for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election. Since June, 2014, the Commission has given at least 11 reminders to the government seeking funds for VVPAT machines. Last year, Zaidi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi drawing his attention to the funds needed for the machines.

Source: Mint April 16, 2017 10:18 UTC