New Delhi: In the wake of a report which stated that the delivery of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines was way behind schedule and that this has almost negated the possibility of early Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India has clarified that all VVPATs would be delivered well before November end and “well within the time required for making pre-poll preparations”.The Commission stated that while all the required electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be delivered by September 30, the delivery of VVPATs had been delayed as the Technical Experts Committee (TEC) on EVMs appointed by the Commission analyses the technology stabilisation issues in the initial batches and incorporates essential design improvements.But despite the VVPATs missing the September end deadline, the poll panel said, “due to continuous monitoring at the highest level, including personal visits by the Commission of all the production units, all VVPATs shall also be delivered well before end of November 2018.”Since the VVPATs have been made mandatory as per the Commission’s submission before the Supreme Court and are now to be used for all polling stations during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and an order of 16.15 lakh VVPATs had been placed by the poll panel with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad in May 2017.36% VVPATs produced till dateTill date, the Commission said, 5.88 lakh units have been produced by these PSUs (4.36 lakh by BEL and 1.52 lakh by ECIL), which is 36% of the total quantity to be supplied.In the June 19 reply to the newspaper, provided in response to an application filed under the Right to Information Act, which had formed the basis of the story, it was stated that till then the Commisison had received only 3.48 lakh units, meeting only 22% of the requirement and that too just three months ahead of the deadline.PSUs have assured delivery of remaining VVPATs by November endThe EC said the story had not taken into account the current status as explained and asserted that both the PSUs have assured that the remaining VVPAT units (10.27 lakh) will be manufactured and supplied to the various states and union territories before the end of November.The Commission further stated that it has been “consistently and periodically” reviewing the status of production and supply of VVPATs with the heads of the PSUs as well as the TEC, to ensure that the design, production and supply activities of all the units of EVMs and VVPATs were streamlined and completed in a time-bound manner.The PSUs are also required to incorporate the features suggested by the TEC which is carrying out supervision of the production process and product performance.Additional EVMs for 2019 polls to be made available by September endAs for the production and supply of additional quantities of EVMs (13.95 lakh ballot units and 9.3 lakh control units) that are required for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Commission said this process would be completed by September 2018 as per schedule.Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Commission said “comprehensive and systematic preparatory activities” would be undertaken and these would include the detailed First Level Checking (FLC) of EVMs and VVPATs. It further stated that this process has already begun in various states and union territories and is being conducted as per a schedule.Recalling that VVPAT machines have been used along with the EVMs in general as well as by-elections in all state assembly and Parliamentary constituencies for enhanced voter verifiability, the Commission said it was committed to their use in all elections.The VVPAT machines are deemed important as they are attached to the EVMs and provide a paper audit trail of the votes actually polled. These paper votes keep falling into a box but can be redeemed to check with the electronic votes in the event of a dispute.The EC has also made it mandatory to tally the electronic votes of at least one polling station in every constituency with the VVPAT paper votes following every election and this method was first used in the counting of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections in November 2017.Complaints about EVM tampering had led to introduction of VVPATIncidentally, it was in early 2017 when in the wake of assembly elections to five a large number of political parties had alleged EVM tampering that the EC had announced the conduct of an EVM challenge and also declared that it would be conducting all future assembly elections with the use of VVPAT.It had thereafter secured funds from the Centre and placed orders for nearly 14 lakh VVPAT units with ECIL and BEL to cover all polling stations during the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and five states in 2019.