Pune: Separate Godown In Ravet For Storing Voting Machines, Capacity To Hold 75,000 Machines
Pune, 8th November 2022: A state-of-the-art godown will be set up in the Pune district to house the Central Election Commission’s voting machines (Electronic Voting Machines – EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). This godown will be set up in an area of 3 hectares 29R in Ravet, and besides keeping about 75,000 voting machines, it will be possible to do counting of votes for some constituencies at this place.
The Central Election Commission has ordered the setting up of a separate godown in every district of the country to store the voting machines used for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Accordingly, the place was searched by the collector’s office in the Pune district. According to this, the place at Ravet has been fixed.
Speaking about this, Collector Dr Rajesh Deshmukh said, “The warehouse of Vakhar Corporation in Bhosari is used to store the voting machines of the Election Commission. However, according to the order of the Central Election Commission, a place in Ravet has been fixed for keeping the voting machines. Election Commission officials also liked this seat, so this seat has been sealed.”
“There are 21 assembly constituencies in Pune district. It includes eight constituencies in Pune city, three constituencies in Pimpri-Chinchwad and ten constituencies in the remaining rural areas. The number of polling stations is more than eight thousand. It was necessary to get the right place to place these voting machines. This godown is going to be built for protection from rain, wind and fire,” he added further.
After the results of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, some people go to court to object to voting. Therefore, the relevant voting machines have to be sealed and kept safe till the results are declared.
In this background, if the right place is found, the voting machines will also be safe. In this regard, it will be possible to build a godown. The present grain godown is built for grain storage. The Wakhar Corporation also needed to get a godown for grain storage. Therefore, it has been decided to provide a place to keep the voting machines.
“It has got the approval of the High Authority Committee of the State Government and will also get funds from the State Government,” said Deshmukh.
3.29 hectares of land for keeping voting machines in Ravet, a warehouse on 1.60 hectares of land, facilities for keeping 75,000 voting machines at the same time, and the auditorium can also be used to count the votes of some constituencies to provide counting training.
