VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed on Krishna University campus in Machilipatnam in the late hours of Saturday as the news of revenue department officials reportedly opening three reserved Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) spread like wildfire after one video was aired in a vernacular news channel.
Alleging that Election Commission officials failed to inform them before opening the EVMs, leaders of various political parties reached the university campus in large numbers and demanded to know as to why the officials opened the EVMs all of a sudden when the counting date was slated for May 23. However, the issue was settled when the collector and concerned revenue officials clarified to the leaders that officials opened reserve EVMs for the purpose of checking and that would not affect the election process in any manner.
According to sources, the incident occurred around 11 pm when the Nuzvid revenue officials opened the strong room at the university campus and opened three reserved EVMs allotted to Nuzvid Assembly segment. The officials, who are claiming that necessary permission was taken from Nuzvid sub-collector, admitted that they had opened three reserve EVMs and preserved them in another godown in Agricultural market.
Krishna district collector MA Imtiaz assured that a departmental inquiry would be initiated into the incident and said that action would be initiated against the videographer of the news channel for entering the strong room by submitting a fake ID card.