As per the directive of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the First Level Checking (FLC) of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) in Arunachal Pradesh has been started from June 1, the Chief Electoral Office of Arunachal Pradesh informed in a press statement.

According to DJ Bhattacharjee, joint chief electoral officer, Itanagar, the FLC is being done by well-trained engineers from Electronic Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), manufacturer of EVM and VVPAT machines.

Bhattacharjee said before election, two-layer checking of EVMs is done and this is only first level checking before the general election.

Basically, the first level checking is done only to identify the defective EBMs/VVPATs which require repairing etc. and good EVMs/VVPATs kept under pink paper seal cover which will be removed during commissioning of EVMs. To carry out the FLC and other EVM related works the political Parties are involved, he said.

The joint CEO also mentioned that the question over tampering of EVM does not arise and it is not at all possible. In this connection, the ECI has already clarified the position vide Note No. ECI/PN/42/2017 dated May 2, 2017 which is available on their website.

Bhattacharjee also said the Election Commission also had a discussion on the matter with experts and political parties and claimed that there is no scope of tampering the EVM during the poll process. “EVM is 100 pc tamper-proof and is not hack-able,” he added.

Pranab Kumar Das is Northeast Now Correspondent in Tezpur. He can be reached at: [email protected]