Raising his voice against tampering of Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) during polls, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said if petrol dispensing machine can be rigged then EVMs too can be tampered with.
Akhilesh Yadav on his twitter account wrote, “if by installing a chip, petrol can be stolen even without the internet connection then it can be done to EVMs also. Misuse of technology should be stopped”.
His statement came a day after UP Special Task Force (STF) registered FIRs against seven petrol pumps and arrested 23 people for duping customers by installing electronic devices in the petrol dispensing machines. The petrol pump owners in Lucknow earned the profit up to Rs 14 lakh by installing the ‘wonder chip’, the price of which is Rs 3,000.
One of the members of the STF said, “The remote control is used to set the limit. If a customer takes 1-litre petrol from any station, in reality, he receives only 940 ml if the dispensing machine is fitted with this chip. So, 60 ml goes into the account of the pump owner”.
जब रिमोट के द्वारा चिप से पेट्रोल की चोरी बिना किसी इंटरनेट कनेक्शन के हो सकती है तो ईवीएम से भी। टेक्नोलॉजी का गलत इस्तेमाल रोकना होगा।
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) April 29, 2017
Meanwhile, this is not the first time when he has made a statement on the EVM tampering issue. Few days back he said that Election Commission should look into the matter and the elections in future should be conducted on the ballot paper.
Earlier, the members of opposition parties met President Pranab Mukherjee to intervene in the EVM issue. They are also demanding to bring back VVPAT (Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail) for upcoming elections.
