The Election Commission of India has decided to authorise political parties to set up camps outside strongrooms for more surveillance and transparency.
Political parties will be granted access to CCTV feeds within the strongrooms, enabling them to monitor activities and detect irregularities, if any.
The commission’s decision came in the wake of numerous allegations that the BJP, being the party in power at the Centre and several states, conducts malpractices in the strongrooms where the EVMs are stored.
Sources in the commission said that the parties, besides overseeing all strongroom activities, including arrivals and departures of personnel and machines at those secure locations, will be allowed to set up camps and deploy their workers 24/7, on the 100-metre cordoned-off radius from the strongrooms.
“At the end of polling in each phase, electronic voting machines (EVMs) are transported from the booths and securely stored in the designated strongrooms. Following the completion of this storage process, political parties will be permitted to set up their camps,” a senior commission official said.
“This measure is taken to prevent any potential controversy on the sanctity of the strongrooms. The commission aims to ensure a fair and equitable environment for all political parties,” he added.
There have been countless accusations of malpractices against the BJP regarding strongrooms from non-BJP parties across the nation.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has been one of the most vocal in recent years in raising such allegations repeatedly.
In Bengal, however, the BJP — besides the CPM and the Congress — has often accused Mamata's party of malpractices in strongrooms during local polls.
A senior in the Bengal chief electoral officer’s office said that the commission made extensive security arrangements to avert any untoward incident in or around the strongrooms.
There will be 42 strongrooms in Bengal, one for each Lok Sabha constituency.
In each strongroom, there will be a two-tier security system, primarily maintained by the central forces.
The inner circle of each strongroom will be monitored by a platoon, comprising 24 personnel of the central forces, who will work in three eight-hour shifts with eight personnel per shift, till counting day.
The outer perimeter, 100 metres from each strongroom, will be guarded by state forces.
The district election officers would visit the storage campus (up to the inner perimeter) daily in the mornings and evenings, and and check the logbooks and videographic records, to send a report to the chief electoral officer at the end of each day.
Candidates keen to inspect strongrooms must navigate through the double-layered security. They can carry only white paper and a pen. Even mobile phones are prohibited.
Candidates must put their names, phone numbers, addresses and other important details on the register before entry.