Congress demands counting of all VVPATs in LS polls
Bengaluru, Mar 15: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Congress President M Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday demanded that all Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) should be counted, during the counting of votes.
He was responding to a question about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent statement that people are demanding that the upcoming elections be held using ballot papers and not EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines).
"This has been our demand since the beginning... You count VVPAT hundred per cent, that is our demand," Kharge told reporters here. "Only a few VVPATs, you are counting. We are demanding that all the VVPAT should be counted. It will be very easy to know. It is not going to cost much."
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VVPAT is an independent system attached with the EVMs that allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. When a vote is cast, a slip is printed containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for seven seconds.
Thereafter, this printed slip automatically gets cut and falls in the sealed drop box of the VVPAT.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
