New Delhi: The Election Commission today said it will ensure the use of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in 2019 General Elections in compliance with the Supreme Court order. The Cabinet today decided that 16,15,000 VVPAT units will be purchased at a tentative unit cost of Rs 19,650 and at a total estimated cost of Rs 3,173.47 crore during the years 2017-18 and 2018-19 from M/s Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bangalore and M/s Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad.
The Commission said it would closely monitor the production of VVPATs for timely delivery well before 2019 General Elections. The Commission said these units would be manufactured by BEL and ECIL only as per the design approved by it based on recommendation of the technical experts committee on EVMs constituted by the Commission and comprising eminent technical professors from IITs. The EC said with this, it will ensure total compliance of the Apex Court orders and its commitment to use VVPATs with every EVM at all polling stations in the country in the 2019 General Elections. (UNI)