Dimapur: The Election Commission of India has already allocated the required quantity of EVMs and VVPATs to be used in all the 2315 existing polling stations in Nagaland in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, an official release said on Friday.
The state will use the latest M3 model EVMs and VVPATs manufactured by Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL (ECIL) Hyderabad.
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The total number of EVMs and VVPATs allocated to the state is 3945 ballot units (BU), 4736 control units (CU) and 4252 VVPATs. Of these, 550 BUs, 1450 CUs and 900 VVPATs are newly manufactured machines.
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The rest EVMs and VVPATs are the same machines used during the recently conducted state assembly election in February 2023, excluding those malfunctioned machines.
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From the newly manufactured EVMs and VVPATs, 250 BUs, 1150 CU and 600 VVPATs have already reached the districts of the state.
All necessary arrangements are being made to collect the remaining BUs, CUs and VVPATs, 300 each, from ECIL Hyderabad by June 2023, the release said.
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As part of the preparedness for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2024, the Nagaland chief electoral officer has tentatively scheduled to conduct workshops on first-level checking (FLC) of EVMs and VVPATs for the district election officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers in the last week of September to sensitise and equip them on handling and management of the EVMs and VVPATs.
In October, the actual FLC of all the EVMs and VVPATs will be conducted by the authorised engineers of the manufacturers of EVMs and VVPATs to keep them ready for use.
The FLC of EVMs and VVPATs is done to clean and for visual inspection, functionality test check and dummy symbol loading in the presence of the representatives of the recognised political parties to ensure that all the components of the EVMs and VVPATs are original and functional.
After the FLC of EVMs and VVPATs are completed, the demonstration and awareness campaign process will be carried out in all the polling stations by a designated team to sensitise the voters about the use of EVMs and VVPATs during elections.