Aiming 2019 General Elections, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally cleared the Election Commission’s proposal to buy new VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines on Wednesday. The Election Commission has been given the go ahead to acquire 16,15,000 units with an estimated cost of Rs. 3,173.47 crore.
Since June 2014, the EC was giving reminders to the Centre seeking funds for VVPAT machines. It has so far given 11 reminders to center.
With the amount of Rs. 3173 crores, total 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines will be acquired as said by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday.
This has been a major step to make voter confirm that he or she has voted his or her desired candidate.
Bengaluru-based M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd from Hyderabad have been additionally chosen by center to manufacture the units.
What is a VVPAT Machine?
A VVPAT machine is attached with voting machine, when a person casts his or her vote, it generates a slip — called a ‘Ballot Slip’ with the serial number, name and symbol of the chosen candidate which a person has voted for. The voters can see the voter-verifiable paper audit trail slip for seven seconds after which it drops into a sealed box, which would be proof of the party he or she has voted for.