New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) had in September 2016 rejected the Narendra Modi government’s plan to purchase voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units from private companies on the ground that “public faith” in them would be “dented” if this were to happen.So far, all electronic voting machines and VVPATs which are attached to the EC have only been manufactured by public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Engineers Corporation of India Limited (ECIL).Information accessed by the Indian Express through right to information appeals revealed that the Union cabinet had on July 20, 2016 asked the poll panel to explore the feasibility of engaging private companies for the production of VVPAT machines to meet requirements ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.In wake of the Supreme Court in 2013 ordering the EC to introduce VVPATs in a phased manner and the poll panel having committed to have sufficient numbers in place for the 2019 general elections, the Centre had also used the opportunity to see if the per unit procurement cost of these machines could be brought down.The newspaper said that the suggestion for making purchases from private players was made by the government to the EC in a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on July 11, 2016, which was chaired by P.K. Mishra, additional principal secretary to the prime minister, and attended by representatives of the EC, law ministry and finance ministry.Following this meeting, the law ministry began urging the EC to share its views. It also demanded that the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) of the EC take a call on the “feasibility” of getting the VVPAT units manufactured by private manufacturers.The law ministry, the newspaper reported, sent three letters between July and September 2016 seeking the views of the EC on its suggestion. Finally, the EC responded on September 19, 2016, stating that it “is of the firm opinion that private manufacturers cannot be given the very sensitive job of manufacturing VVPAT which are integral to EVMs”.The poll panel, which was then headed by Nasim Zaidi, had cited the report of the TEC to reject the Centre’s proposal.The expert committee had raised some pertinent questions and objections.It had noted that public faith in VVPATs, which are accessories to EVMs, may be dented if these are manufactured by the private sector.Further, it had also stated that before every election, the VVPATs are required to undergo a field-level check or FLC in the presence of political parties. After FLC, engineers from the manufacturing company load election data into each EVM and VVPAT. The expert panel said the level of confidence of the public may change if the FLC and data loading were done by a private agency.The panel had also raised concerns about the servicing of VVPAT machines if they were to be procured from private players since BEL and ECIL do so for 15 years at present.The technical committee said it was also not sure if and how the private manufacturer would incorporate security features in the production process to ensure that VVPATs remained tamper proof.Finally, the panel also asked if the private player would in a short span of time be able install the high-grade quality assurance infrastructure that BEL and ECIL already have on account of manufacturing products for strategic sectors like defence, atomic energy and space.The VVPAT machines were deemed important as they are attached to the Electronic Voting Machines (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. Also, the EC has 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.Incidentally, following the announcement of assembly elections to five states early in 2017, a large number of political parties had alleged EVM tampering. Following this, 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 has since 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.
