EVMs unaffected by water in strong-room: Election Commission

The Election Commission has finally cleared the confusion over suspected damage to Electronic Voting Machines on account of seepage of water from an overhead water tank in a strong-room where the machines were kept after the voting on February 19.

EC observers Arvinder Singh and Aseem Khurana, who were specially detailed to unlock and inspect the heavily guarded strong-rooms declared the EVMs "safe and unaffected by the water that had collected all over the floor of the rooms."

"Earlier ,much confusion prevailed throughout the day as word spread that heavy leakage of water from the overhead tank had flooded the two rooms where EVMS of two local state assembly constituencies -- Sarojini Nagar and Mohanlal Ganj -- were kept  since the day of the polling.

Both constituencies were part of the Lucknow district where polling was held on November 19.

"The EVMs of both the constituencies were carried to the Lucknow Polytechnic where counting of votes is scheduled on March 6," said a commission official.

"Candidates who were in the fray for the two seats were also allowed access to the two strong-rooms along with the EC observers to see that no damage was caused to the EVMs on account of the water," he said.

However, the candidates slammed the local administration for the callousness, which apparently led to the overflow of water from the overhead tanks that led to all the panic that eventually came to an end after day-long tension and confusion.