Williamnagar, Feb 18: : In the wake of a video which went viral on social media wherein it was stated that some EVMs are rigged or manipulated and will count vote only to BJP when voted on, East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner, Jagdish Chelani, has issued a public notice requesting the members of the general public not to circulate misinformation and warned that penalty under relevant sections of law will be imposed on the person who circulates misinformation.
According to the Deputy Commissioner, the EVMs are highly secured machineries and there are several checks in place to ensure no such incident ever occurs and these machineries are built, repaired and always stored in secure location.
He further informed that while drafting the EVMs, four stages of checks are performed on the machines to rule out any errors as per the protocol set by the Election Commission of India (ECI) like removing of defective machines from the stock after checking, randomization of machines multiple times through a software during allocation to constituencies and polling stations, conducting of mock poles during commissioning and conducting of mock poles on the EVMs in all polling stations one hour before the start of the poll to ascertain that no error or objection remains and all these stages of checks are done in presence of the representatives of political parties and the contesting candidates.
He also informed that if any person objects that VVPAT is giving a wrong name against his or her vote, the voter is allowed to register a complaint following which the polling will be immediately stopped and mock poll will be re-conducted in the presence of all the representatives and the complainant and penalty will be imposed on the complainant if his or her complaint is not true.