Voting machine snag due to excessive light: EC
New Delhi, June 8: A number of electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned in two places in the recent bypolls due to "excessive exposure to illumination", the Election Commission (EC) said on Friday.
The EC had formed two special teams to look into the unusually high number of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines malfunctioning in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana and Maharashtra's Bhandara-Gondiya on May 28.
The preliminary report found two major technical reasons for the malfunctioning -- failure of contrast sensor and failure of the length sensor.
"These errors are mainly caused by excessive exposure to illumination in the polling stations," the EC said, citing the preliminary report submitted by the probing teams.
The EC has now asked the manufacturers to do a detailed technical analysis once the VVPATs are free from election petition -- the 45-day period after election when EVMs and VVPATs have to be mandatorily kept in the strong rooms.
"The commission has asked the manufacturers and the technical expert committee (TEC) to suggest additional design improvements as well as suggestions on any layout changes in the polling stations to prevent any excessive exposure to illumination in future," the poll panel said.
"The commission has also adopted the hardware improvement recommended by the TEC to prevent auto shut down of VVPATs due to excessive light," it added.
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Flight services between Kolkata, Dubai resume partially
Kolkata (PTI): Flight services between Kolkata and Dubai resumed partially on Thursday, after a four-day suspension due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, officials said.
A flydubai aircraft from Dubai landed at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport here at 2:40 am with 130 passengers on board, marking the first arrival from the Middle East after services were halted for over 113 hours, they said.
The Boeing 737 Max aircraft was scheduled to arrive at 12:25 am, Kolkata airport officials said.
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The same aircraft departed for Dubai at 3:59 am with 55 passengers, they said.
The last flight to depart for the Middle East from Kolkata before the suspension was an Emirates aircraft to Dubai on February 28, the officials said.
International services between Kolkata and cities such as Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi were disrupted, after airlines temporarily suspended operations amid escalating tensions and airspace restrictions in parts of the Middle East, due to the conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran.
There is no clear indication about when all the Middle East routes will fully reopen, they said.
