Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail to be introduced in Assam

The Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) will be introduced in 10 constituencies of Assam, including all four seats of Dispur, in the assembly elections slated for April 4 and 11.
Under the new facility, the voter can see a printout bearing the name of the candidate and the poll symbol he has selected for voting and verify it, Kamrup (Metro) district Deputy Commissioner M Angamathu said today.
VVPAT machine will be attached to every electronic voting machine (EVM) that would allow the voters to verify that their vote had been cast correctly, he said.
After the voter views, the receipt automatically goes into a container linked to the EVMs and cannot be taken by the voter, Angamathu said.

The state capital has four Assembly constituencies - Jalukbari, Dispur, Gauhati East and Gauhati West - which are among the ten constituencies of the state going to the hustings in two phases, he said.
Altogether 10,00,797 voters, including 4,93,211 women, are registered in the four constituencies with the highest 3,53,969 voters in Dispur, 2,52,102 in Gauhati West, 2,13,909 in Gauhati East and 1,80,817 in Jalukbari, the DC said.

The four constituencies are going to the polls on April 11, Angamathu, who is also the returning officer, said there would be 1,112 polling stations with 375 in Dispur, 285 in Gauhati-W, 240 in Gauhati-E and 212 in Jalukbari.

Informing that all polling stations will be continuously monitored with CCTVs and video cameras, the DC said 255 polling stations were categorised as 'sensitive', 100 'very sensitive', 757 'comparatively safe' and 13 as 'critical' in the district.
There would be eight Model Polling Stations in the district with the best possible facilities, he said.
All polling stations would be on ground floors with full access for elderly citizens and those with special needs. Ramps and helping hands would also be available for them.
Altogether 7,339 polling personnel would be engaged in the district for smooth conduct of the elections.
To increase voter participation, he said the district administration would start an awareness campaign targeting new voters and college goers.

For encouraging housewives to cast votes, Angamathu said stickers asking them to vote would be put on LPG cylinders.
Besides, the first 10 voters in every polling station would be felicitated and presented with a certificate and memento, he said.
The administration was also using technology for receiving complaints from the public on the poll process by assigning a toll-free and Whatsapp number, Angamathu said.
For monitoring of election expenditure there would be adequate flying squads and static surveillance teams. Major rallies of political parties would be monitored and separate bank accounts for poll expenditure would have to be opened, the Deputy Commissioner said.