Keonjhar: A youth was detained by workers of a political party while he was moving in a ‘suspicious manner’ in front of the strong room at Odisha School of Mining Engineering in Keonjhar today morning. Following this, Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar said that no one should loiter around the EVM strong rooms.
The youth, who claims to be an engineer, was handed over to police after he was spotted roaming around the area at around 1 am in the night. While polls had been held in Keonjhar on April 23 (Phase-III), the sealed EVMs and VVPATs have been kept in the control room till the counting takes place in May 23.
Clarifying the entire matter, Odisha CEO said, “The school of mining and engineering has a large campus and there is private guest house in the area. I have already talked to both SP and collector. They have assured that the youth was a relative of the college Principal and was staying in the guest house.”
“Police has interrogated and one platoon of CAPF will stay there till counting takes place. I also want to clarify that there no transmitter or receiver in the EVMs, VVPATs and Control Units. The machines are standalone and you cannot communicate with the machines at any cost. So, the machines are completely safe and secure in the control room,” he added.
“I have also asked repositioning of the guest house immediately so that no one can stay there. Under section 150 of Representation of the People act, all collectors have been directed to take adequate steps to avoid any one from loitering near our strong room that might create suspicion in the minds of public,” he concluded.