Go back to ballot papers till VVPATs linked to EVMs: Congress

The Congress on Monday said that allowing EVMs without VVPATs is a direct violation of the Supreme Court's order and asked the government to go back to paper ballots till they are installed.

It also slammed the government for being "disinterested" in installation of Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) in the EVMs".

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment on Sunday that EVM manipulation charge was an fabricated issue, Congress said that "the government was scared because the fabrication and manipulation lie somewhere else and that is why they want to bury the issue".

"In 30 months this government has denied the Election Commission the funds to do any installation of VVPAT to accompany the 16 lakh EVMs that roughly exist against which 58,000 VVPATs is the total number.

"The Election Commission, in its third letter, said they need Rs 3,000 crore now to be able to use VVPATs in 2019 elections. I have no doubt that for the future 30 months also the Election Commission will not get Rs 13 crore leave aside Rs 3,000 crore," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

He asked if the government's going ahead with EVMs without VVPAT "is not a direct violation of the Supreme Court order - which in its order said it is 'indispensable' to have paper trail".

"Go back to paper ballots and when you have given the funds, installed the VVPAT, then come back with the EVM. What is the problem?" he said.

"The Prime Minister said yesterday that there are many fabricated issues and one of them he raised was the EVM issue. I would remind him they are rightfully scared and fearful because the fabrication and manipulation may lie somewhere else and that is why they want to bury this issue deep."

--IANS

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