Man on Countrywide ‘Padayatra’ to Seek Ban on EVM

Reporters Today, Berhampur: A 41-year-old man from Uttarakhand is on a countrywide ‘padayatra’ to seek a ban on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and bring back ballot papers in elections.

Onkar Singh Dhillon, a real-estate businessman of Rudrapur in Uttarakhand was in Berhampur as part of his ‘padayatra’ to create awareness against EVMs after travelling around 4,500-km on foot. He left this south Odisha city yesterday as he resumed his onward journey.

“EVMs should be banned. The parties in power might have manipulated the EVMs to come to power, which is not good for the country and its people,” said Dhillon. In many countries, even in the developed ones EVMs are not used in elections, he said. Dhillon, who is married and sports a beard, said he has never contested elections but he is apprehensive about manipulation of EVMs.

The 41-year-old said he had started his ‘padayatra’ from Rudrapur in Uttarakhand on August 18, last year. His aim is to culminate the ‘padayatra’ at Rajghat, New Delhi after travelling around 6,500-km in the last week of March or first week of April. Dhillon claimed that he has already covered around 4,500-km before reaching here.

He said he has covered some main towns of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. From Odisha, he would go to West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and then New Delhi.