BENGALURU: District Election Officer and BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath on Thursday said he will hold a meeting with all political parties, inviting them to visit the newly-opened storage warehouse of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines in Bengaluru.
He said that the political parties will be invited for the first-level check from February 10-19. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the first constructed building in Pillahalli village in Dasanapura Hobli, Bengaluru North, he said four such warehouses will come up in Bengaluru, one for each Parliamentary constituency.
Also present on the occasion, K A Dayanand, Additional District Election Officer and Bengaluru Urban DC, said that earlier, the machines were kept in the DC’s office, where the space was small. Now, the machines, under special police protection, will be shifted here. Each of the warehouse has CCTVs and special protection.
The building in Pillahalli is spread over two acres of land and four additional district election officers -- of Bengaluru City, Central, North, and South -- will come under the jurisdiction of the Bengaluru District Election Officer. Earlier, these warehouses were in the city. As per ECI guidelines and directives, warehouses of EVMs and VVPATs are being set up separately, and for this purpose a warehouse of Bengaluru City District has been established in the first phase, Girinath said.
The construction of the warehouses in Bengaluru North and South is under progress at the same location, and by the time of the Lok Sabha elections, the work will be completed and they will be operational, Girinath added.
EVMs have already arrived for the upcoming general elections and have been stored in the warehouse. Dayanand added that seven Vidhana Sabha constituencies come under Bengaluru City District, with a total of 3,083 polling booths.