MARGAO: The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine is a critical component of the electronic voting system implemented in India in a step towards winning the public trust in the election process. The Supreme Court in 2013 had called it “an indispensable requirement of free, fair and transparent” polls and had ordered that it must be implemented across the country. During the hearing, the poll panel had also informed the SC bench that VVPAT can be introduced in a phased manner and cited administrative and financial reasons for it. However, four years later the ECI is far from achieving this mission.
According to a RTI reply, the ECI stated that a total of 16,35,000 VVPAT units are required for the Lok Sabha Election in 2019. Further, the ECI states that there are only 3 lakh VVPAT machines available for election purpose. Interestingly, they stated that this is an approximate figure. It must be noted that the RTI application was filed in November 2017, the RTI reply is dated 9/4/2018 and the letter was received by the applicant in December 2018.
If the 13,35,000 shortfall in VVPAT isn’t shocking enough, the information presented in Lok Sabha is even more so. In a reply to MP YV Subba Reddy in December 2015, the Minister for Law and Justice (MoLJ) Ravi Shankar Prasad had disclosed that the ECI had planned a staggered purchase of VVPAT units costing Rs 20,347 (plus taxes) per unit from 2015 to 2018. In 2015-16, they planned to procure 58,500 units and addition 4,22,250 units each in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19. Thus a total of 13,25,250 VVPAT units were scheduled to be procured for a total cost of Rs 1,010 crore.
However, a reply in 2017 hints that the government had hardly procured any VVPAT machines. In a reply to MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy in July 2017, the MoLJ stated that “Commission has informed that it has already placed work order on May 19, 2017, for procurement of 8,07,500 VVPATs each from M/s Bharat Electronics Limited and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Limited.”. In other words, the ECI has placed an order for 16,15,000 VVPAT machines.
In December 2017, in a reply to MP Rajan Vichare, the MoLJ stated that they have 1,17,500 VVPAT units in stock.
A few months later in a reply to MP Sanjay Jadhav (March 2018), the MoLJ stated that “The Election Commission has stated that 1.79 lakh VVPATs are available in their stock.” They further state that the Commission has enough VVPAT units available to hold 100% paper trail based assembly polls in the country. But to conduct the Lok Sabha elections, an order for the purchase of 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines at a total cost of Rs 2616.30 crore (excluding tax and transport) and that the entire quantity will be made available by the manufacturers by September 2018.
In December 2018, South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar asked whether the Government would extend all possible assistance to the ECI to substantially increase its reserve of the machines, to which the MoLJ responded stating that “all requests from ECI for additional requirements of VVPAT units are acceded to after following the procedure laid down in this regard”. Neither the ECI nor the MoLJ categorically stated that there are sufficient reserves of VVPAT machines. Herald tried to contact the office of Madhusugdan Gupta, the Under Secretary of ECI in-charge of EVM/VVPAT to seek clarity but no one picked up the call.
It must be noted that the technical reliability of VVPATs is also under scrutiny. In the UP elections held in May, more than 600 VVPATs had malfunctioned. Questions were also raised over the use of thermal paper in VVPAT machines since the print fades in a few weeks or due to human touch. With over 16 lakh VVPATs possible under production, will the government have sufficient time to test every machine? Further, if as expected, a few State governments dissolved and simultaneous Assembly elections are held along with Lok Sabha elections, the number of VVPAT machines required will be much higher than 16.15 lakh. With just a few months to go, the challenge before the Modi government is to maintain public trust by ensuring that VVPAT machines are deployed across the country.
