Senior Congress leader and MLA H.K. Patil on Sunday called on Legislative Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri and submitted documents related to 19 lakh “missing” electronic voting machines (EVMs) from the custody of the Election Commission of India during 2016-18 and demanded an inquiry by an independent judicial commission into the episode.
Addressing a press conference later, Mr. Patil said the Speaker should urge the Centre and President Ram Nath Kovind to initiate a free and fair probe into missing EVMs under the chairmanship of a judge of the Supreme Court of India. Mr. Patil said he had submitted 2,750 pages of documents on missing EVMs to the Speaker.
In a letter to Mr. Kageri, Mr. Patil demanded summoning of ECI officials to the Legislative Assembly to clarify on the allegations against the ECI, State Election Commission and public sector undertakings.
“The State Election Commission may be directed to hold an “ethical hackathon” by technocrats, R&D institutions, corporates involved in technology and scientists to allay anxiety, suspicion and confusion raised in the minds of people about EVMs, he said.
During a special debate on electoral reforms in the State Assembly a few months ago, the former Minister cited RTI responses to urge the Speaker to seek clarification from the ECI. Following the debate, the Speaker had agreed to summon the ECI and seek an explanation.
Mr. Patil claimed that 9.64 lakh EVMs had gone missing from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), and 9.29 lakh from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), another firm manufacturing the voting machines. He cited RTI responses received by Mumbai-based activist Manoranjan Roy from BEL and the ECIL and the ECI.
The manufacturer of EVMs told ECI to dispose of machines after the shelf life of 15 years. In 2021, ECI published a manual and glaringly a chapter on disposal and destruction of EVMs has been deleted from the manual, Mr. Patil alleged. “Instead, a procedure on lost and found EVMs has been inserted in the manual clearly accepting that the EVMs are missing,” he said.
