In Himachal, polling team opened EVMs in advance for testing, action against them initiated

SHIMLA: A polling party dispatched to conduct polling on Sunday ended up opening the Electronic Voting Machines on Saturday itself for testing at Bhager polling station of Ghumarwin sub division in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh after which entire polling staff has been removed from there and new team has been sent.
After receiving the information about the incident, Election Commission has issued a notice to entire polling staff.Official sources said that matter was immediately brought into the notice of District Electoral Officer and disciplinary action has also been recommended against the concerned polling staff.
Sources said that on reaching the polling station, the team broke the seal of Electronic Voting Machines to run it for testing on Saturday itself while Election Commission’s standing instructions are to run the machine for testing on polling day only.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Dalip Negi said that strict action is being taken against the polling party which opened the EVMs early for testing in Bilaspur district.
He said that a new polling team has been deployed and EVMs at Bhager polling stations have been changed.