HYDERABAD: At a time when Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have become a favourite punching bag for political blame games, chairman and managing director of the Electronics Corporation of India Limited(ECIL) - inventors of the EVMs - has reiterated that the machines are absolutely tamper proof. Hyderabad-based ECIL has produced more than 10 Lakh EVMs in the last two decades.
ECIL’s CMD, Debashis Das, said the corporation received letters of intent for supply of EVMs worth Rs 600 crore and approximately 8 lakh VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) worth Rs 1,500 crore.
With a new feature, he said, the name and symbol of the contestant in whose favour the vote has been cast can be printed and would be visible to the voter for 7 seconds before it falls into the sealed box.
According to him, VVPATs would be available for general elections across the country in 2019. He revealed that the corporation has touched a turnover of Rs 1,495 crores for 2016-17 and is poised to cross Rs 2500 crore in the near future.
Along with ECIL, state owned Bharat Electronics Limited is also in the process of producing Rs 1,500 cr worth VVPAT machines. The life of a EVM is 15 years and ECIL has last year started recalling expired EVMs and have disposed them off in the presence of the Election Commission of India. The new batch of expired EVMs will be received by ECIL soon.
Chief guest Sekhar Basu, Chairman Atomic Energy Commission(AEC) and Secretary Department of Atomic Energy(DAE), on the ocassion of golden jubilee celebrations, noted that Nuclear Energy is a safe and clean source of energy. Drawing an analogy between Nuclear energy and fire, Basu said both are clean and safe source of energy and if left uncontrolled would cause problems.
He congratulated ECIL employees on completion of 50 yrs of Excellence in the field of Electronics and wished ECIL all the best in its future endeavors. Past C&MDs of ECIL- SR Vijayakar, GP Srivatsava, YS Mayya and P Sudhakar. Lt.Gen AR Prasad, AVSM, VSM Board member of ECIL also were present.