Kolkata: Around 3,000 EVMs were destroyed in the Alipore New Administrative Building fire, a senior EC official said.The fire, which broke out at the building on June 10, damaged several floors of the 10-storey building. The strongroom on the 10th floor, where the EVMs were kept, was gutted. “Around 4,000 EVMs were kept in the New Administrative Building. Among those, a little over 3,000 EVMs were destroyed. But the VVPAT (voters’ verifiable paper audit trail) slips are unharmed as those are kept in the treasury. So, although the machines are burnt, the data is safe,” the official said.The affected EVMs were used at polling booths in the Assembly constituencies of Kasba, Jadavpur and Behala East and West among others, under Alipore Sadar sub-division and several constituencies under the Diamond Harbour sub-division of South 24 Parganas district.Engineers from the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), the manufacturer of EVMs, along with EC officials, examined each EVM individually to assess the impact of the fire. “Upon examination, they found over 3,000 EVMs were destroyed. Around 1,000 EVMs, which were kept on the balcony side of the 10th floor, are intact,” the EC official said.Under EC rules, after the election results are declared, ballot units (BUs) and control units (CUs) are sealed in their carrying cases in the presence of candidates or their representatives. VVPAT slips are removed from the VVPAT machines and sealed separately in black envelopes. The BUs, CUs, VVPAT slips and other election materials are stored in strongrooms under the custody of the district election officers concerned for 45 days, until the date for filing election petitions expires. If an election petition is filed in the high court, the units concerned are preserved until the final disposal of the case. “We don’t anticipate any problem with the filing of any election petition as VVPAT slips remain intact and are safely stored in the treasury,” another EC official said.A preliminary report submitted to the EC by the district election officer (DEO) of South 24 Parganas, suggesting that some EVMs could have been damaged in the New Administrative Building fire, had prompted the state to form a four-member SIT to investigate the incident.
