Shimla, May 27
To ensure the smooth conduct of voting in the snowbound Spiti valley for the upcoming elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has airlifted EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines), VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails), and other election materials to Kaza using a special helicopter.
Rahul Jain, the Assistant Election Officer and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Lahaul Spiti, stated that in line with ECI guidelines, the EVMs and VVPATs were transported from the Kaza helipad to a secure strong room. These machines will be distributed to all the inaccessible polling stations via an Air Force helicopter for the Mandi Lok Sabha Parliamentary General Election 2024 and the Assembly by-election in the tribal district of Lahaul Spiti.
The machines, which were delivered to the Kaza helipad at 7:35 am on Monday under tight security, are now secured in the strong room at Kaza. From there, they will be dispatched to various polling stations by election officials.
Rahul Kumar Jain confirmed that a total of 40 EVMs and 40 VVPATs have been received for the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-election scheduled for June 1, across 29 polling stations in the Spiti sub-division. Given the challenging geographical conditions of Kaza, an additional 11 EVMs and 11 VVPATs have been included and safely delivered under the supervision of Nodal Officer Harsh Amarendra Negi. After the voting concludes on June 2, these machines will be securely transported to the strong room at Keylong headquarters for the vote count, again using an Air Force helicopter.
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