Union Cabinet clears EC proposal for paper trail machines

New Delhi, Apr 19 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a proposal of the Election Commission to procure paper trail machines for use during future elections.
The decision comes in the wake of growing demands from opposition parties for holding all future elections using paper trail machines along with EVMs, to clear doubts about votes cast.The clearance was given by the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the proposal of “procurement of VVPAT units” after a brief discussion. The EC has sought Rs 3,174 crore in all for procuring over 16 lakh paper trail machines to cover all polling stations in the country.
The Cabinet has so far cleared two tranches of Rs 1,009 crore and Rs 9,200 for the Commission to buy new electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Since June, 2014, the Commission has given at least 11 reminders to the government seeking funds for VVPAT machines.
Last year, Chief Election Commissioner SNA Zaidi had written to the Prime Minister drawing his attention to the funds needed for the machines.
The Supreme Court has asked the Commission to give a tentative timeframe by which it can use VVPAT machines in all polling stations.