EC takes all measures to protect strongrooms storing EVMs,

With Cyclone Fani barreling its way to West Bengal from Odisha, the Election Commission has taken all measures to protect strongrooms where EVMs and VVPATs have been stored, a senior EC official said Friday.

The EVMs and VVPATs are for use in the seven parliamentary constituencies going to the polls in the fifth phase in the state on Monday, he said.

EC officers in the state held video conferences with district magistrates and telephonic meetings during the day with senior officials on precautionary measures needed to be taken for the VVPATs and the EVMs.

"We have spoken to the district magistrate of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies and also had a detailed discussion with other officials of the EC regarding measures to protect the strongrooms in view of the cyclone," the EC official told PTI.

The EVMs and the VVPATs come inbuilt in boxes. They are sealed after the polling is over in the presence of election officials and polling agents, the official said.

"Polling in North and South Kolkata seats are scheduled for the last phase on May 19, but we are not taking any chance. All the EVMs and the VVPATs are kept safely," he said.

Bangaon, Barrackpore both in North 24 Parganas district, Howrah, Uluberia, Sreerampore, Hooghly, Arambag are scheduled to go to polls in the the fifth phase of elections on May 6.

The city has over 10 strongrooms and necessary arrangements have been for them too, he said.

The EC official said the strongrooms are constructed keeping in mind the possiblities of cyclone, rainfall, flood, earthquakes or fire.

"A strongroom must be a concrete structure with walls and ceilings constructed in such a manner that it can store the EVMs and the VVPATs safely from any threat of fire, flood, earthquake," he said..

The windows are filled with brick walls built from inside the rooms and the doors are made in a manner that water cannot enter the rooms, he said.

"Besides, the EVMs and the VVPATs are not kept on the floor. They are put on racks away from the walls. The power supply is cut off in a manner that the possibility of fire due to any electrical short circuit is nil. Electricity supply is controlled from outside," he said.

The state government has sounded an alert to cope with the extremely severe cyclonic storm and has taken all precautionary measures for East and West Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly districts, besides Jhargram, Kolkata and the Sundarbans to avert any untoward incident.

Six National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and four State Disaster Response Force(SDRF) teams have been deployed, while one standby team of the SDRF is ready at the state secretariat to move to any place.

A control room has been opened at the state secretariat to monitor the situation 24X7.

The Kolkata Police too has opened a control room at its headquarters to monitor the situation in the city.

Packing heavy rain and winds with speeds of up to 175 kmph, the cyclonic storm 'Fani' slammed into the Odisha coast on Friday morning.