| Unprecedented security in Meghalaya strongrooms | ||
Shillong, April 18 : Meghalaya’s mandate, locked in electronic voting machines and stashed away in strongrooms, is being safeguarded with the vengeance with which the US government protects its country’s gold at Fort Knox. Since there is a gap of a whole month before counting begins, the eight strongrooms across Meghalaya have been provided with a kind of security that has not been adopted anywhere else in the country for these parliamentary elections. Fortified with three-tier security, the strongrooms have been fitted with night-vision cameras, closed circuit TVs, infrared ray devices and smoke detectors, giving them a touch of Fort Knox, considered one of the most secured addresses in the world. A platoon of central paramilitary is guarding the 2,117 EVMs from Shillong and Tura parliamentary constituencies, which went to the polls yesterday. The eight strongrooms are at the headquarters of the all the seven districts, Shillong, Nongpoh, Nongstoin, Jowai, Tura, Baghmara and Williamnagar and the civil subdivision of Resubelpara in Garo Hills. “Meghalaya is the only state in the country which has adopted this security system given the gap of one month for counting of ballots which are sealed in the EVMs,” said the chief electoral officer P. Naik. The infrared rays can scan the EVMs and every corner of the strongrooms even when there is no electricity. Each strongroom has been closed with three locks in the presence of political parties, said Frederick Kharkongor, the returning officer of Tura parliamentary constituency. “We have also put up barricades outside the hall leading to the strongrooms,” he said. Twenty-four central police force personnel — one sub-inspector, three havildars and 20 sepoys — will take turns to guard the strongrooms round the clock. The returning officer for Shillong parliamentary constituency, B. Dhar, said in the past there was only “normal security arrangement” as counting began just a few days after polling. “Now, since the counting will take place only on May 16, we do not want to see any laxity in security,” he said. |
Fort Knox touch to ballot
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Sinlung
