VILLUPURAM: Six CCTV cameras in the
strong rooms
where EVMs are stored after polling in the Villupuram reserved parliamentary constituency malfunctioned and stopped working for about 30 minutes on Friday morning. This is the fourth such incident in Tamil Nadu,and has raised concerns among candidates.
The surveillance cameras suddenly ceased working at 9.28 am.
Technicians from the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board immediately attended to the problem in the presence of district officials and repaired the faulty CCTVs, restoring their functioning at 9.58 am.
The district collector and the SP later inspected the six strong rooms in the presence of people assigned by the candidates. However, repeated instances of CCTV snags in
EVM
strong rooms in the state have raised eyebrows.
Villupuram’s sitting MP and VCK candidate D Ravikumar lodged a complaint with RO, and urged him to follow EC directive and take necessary measures to safeguard polled EVMs kept in strong rooms. In a letter to the returning officer, Ravikumar said he was informed about the snag by Ayyappan, whom he had assigned to monitor the strong room.
Earlier, the CCTV cameras in a strong room in Nilgiris constituency faced a
technical glitch
, disrupting the feed for at least 20 minutes on April 27. Nilgiris collector M Aruna attributed the technical error to overheating and lack of ventilation.
