EVM strongrooms turn into garrison with 3-tier security

HYDERABAD: Five thousand cops, including personnel drawn from the paramilitary forces, will constantly monitor and keep an eagle eye on strongrooms where Thursday’s crucial voting pattern stored in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPATs) is kept. Police personnel in large numbers have been deployed near the strongrooms at 38 locations across the state.
After the process of shifting of EVMs and VVPATs from various polling stations to the strongrooms completed by Friday afternoon, returning officers sealed the strongrooms in the presence of the candidates or their agents. Out of the 38 strongrooms, 15 are in Hyderabad alone where EVMs and VVPATs of Hyderabad and Secunderabad parliamentary constituencies are stored.

For Hyderabad, each assembly constituency has been allotted a strongroom to ensure counting is taken up smoothly on May 23. EVMs and VVPATs of the rest of the 15 constituencies are stored in towns in respective constituencies.

Senior police officials said the cops would be working in three shifts round-the-clock. “We have provided a three-tier security at all 38 locations. Armed paramilitary personnel will be guarding the innermost security layer, while state armed security personnel will be guarding the perimeter of the facility. Local law and order police will man the outer most security layer,” Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) M Mahendar Reddy said.

For Hyderabad and Secunderabad parliamentary constituencies, EVMs and VVPATs were stored at 15 locations in the city. “For each assembly constituency that comes under the two parliamentary constituencies, a strongroom was set up,” said P Vishwa Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), central zone.

CCTV cameras have also been installed inside the strongrooms to record every proceeding. Section 144 has been imposed at the strongrooms to prevent people from gathering nearby, Cyberabad commissioner VC Sajjanar said.