Anticipated delays in the construction of new strongrooms for storing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines have prompted state election officials to renew the lease of existing warehouses. The proposed strongrooms for Pune, Mumbai, and Thane are unlikely to be ready before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Following the recent theft of a demo EVM from the tehsildar’s office in Saswad, election officials conducted a review of the security measures for both existing strongrooms and demo EVM storage facilities. Out of the 14 new strongrooms proposed in 2022, only 10 have been newly constructed, with the remaining expected to be ready only in time for the assembly elections, according to state chief electoral officer Shrikant Deshpande.
Deshpande assured that a comprehensive review of the security measures in all districts took place, and the existing strongrooms were found to have satisfactory security measures in place. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had issued directives in 2022 for all districts across states to establish warehouses with an assembly segment-wise system for storing EVMs and VVPAT machines. Warehouses in Pune and Mumbai city were planned as regional hubs for storage and movement of these machines to other districts.
In Pune, approximately 8.1 acres of land at Ravet has been allocated for the construction of the strongrooms, and the Public Works Department (PWD) is currently overseeing the progress.
