Chaos in Mahasadak; Locals creating ruckus over reserved EVMs, polling officials walking miles

Like every year, Cachar district administration has earmarked National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) at Jhapirbond, adjacent to Mahasadak as the main coordination centre. 

All polling officials moved from NATRiP to their respective constituencies and then they are supposed to return to the same place with all the EVMs. There are 1834 polling stations in the district. There is a traffic jam spread across more than five kilometres on the Mahasadak. Polling officials are walking with EVMs and they are in hundreds.

One of the main reasons behind the chaotic situation is the ruckus that the locals are creating at the middle of the road. Few civilians, most of them young and hyper-excited stopped a private vehicle and then turned it upside down. Their allegations are that EVMs were illegally being transported from one place to another. “Why were EVMs being transported in a private vehicle without any security personnel. These are doctored EVMs which will now be replaced with the EVMs that recorded the votes,” the locals alleged. That is why they said they have vandalised the car and destroyed the EVMs.

A similar incident took place a few metres away where the locals have vandalised a lorry. That too had EVMs. Officer in charge Silchar Sadar Ditumoni Goswami has reached the spot and tried to calm the agitating locals. They locals alleged BJP of “meddling with the election” and that is why they were going to set the truck on fire. 

Barak Bulletin’s correspondent climbed up the truck and filmed the EVM. All of them were reserve EVMs. The Police officials tried to explain it to the locals that these are reserved and unused EVMs and that is why they were being transported. But the locals were not willing to listen and continued with their sloganeering. 

Cachar SP Bhanwar Lal Meena also rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. He was unavailable for a comment. While it is true that these were reserve EVMs as per the tags, it remains a mystery why EVMs were being transported in a private car. Also, why there were no security provided to the carriers. 

At the stroke of midnight, such a chaos has forced the dedicated polling officials in trouble.