VISITS
OF MINISTERS AND MISUSE OF OFFICIAL
VEHICLES/MACHINERY
Chartering
of Aircraft and Helicopters
Election Commission's Order No. 437/6/94/MCS-Vol V
Dated: 20th October, 1994 to (1) The Cabinet
Secretary Rastrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. 2. Secretary
to the Govt of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, New
Delhi. 3. Secretary to the Govt of India, Ministry of
Law, Justice & Company Affairs, New Delhi. 4.
Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories
5. Chief Electoral Officers of all States and Union
Territories.
______________________________________________________________________
Subject: Chartering of aircraft and
helicopters.
----------------------------------------------------------ORDER
The Commission has already issued instructions
imposing a total and absolute ban on the use of
official vehicles for campaigning, electioneering or
election related travel during elections.
2. It has been brought to the notice of the
Commission that political parties are getting
State/Public Sector Undertakings aircraft/helicopters
chartered through private companies etc. for
electioneering in such a way that the other parties
are put to a disadvantage. The commission has,
therefore, directed that the procedure to be followed
for chartering Government aircraft/helicopters
(including those owned by Public Sector Undertakings
and Corporations) should be on an absolutely
equitable basis and should be widely publicised. Some
of the minimum conditions which should be included in
the procedure to make it absolutely equitable are as
under:-
2.1 There should be no discrimination between the
ruling party on the one hand and the other parties
and contesting candidates on the other.
2.2 The payment will be made by the political parties
or the contesting candidates and proper record
maintained.
2.3. The rates and terms and conditions should be
uniform for all.
2.4 The actual allotment should be made on a
first-come first-served basis. For this purpose, the
date and time of receipt of the application should be
noted down by the authorised receiving authority.
2.5 In the rare case when both the date and time of
two or more applicants is the same, the allotment
will be decided by draw of lots.
2.6 To obviate any contingency of rejection of an
application for failure to mention certain
particulars or on such other technical grounds, a
format of the application should be prepared and made
available to all those who want to avail of the
facility.
2.7 No individual, firm, party or candidate will be
allowed to charter the aircraft/helicopter for more
than three days at a time. Any application which does
not conform to this requirement shall be rejected.
3. The above conditions/stipulations to be
incorporated in the procedure are illustrative and
not exhaustive. Every endeavor should be made to make
the procedure as equitable and just as possible.
4. The entire exercise should be transparent and wide
publicity, if necessary, through print and electronic
media should be given in advance about the entire
procedure. There should be no scope whatsoever that
any part of the exercise was done under a cloak of
secrecy.
5. A copy of the instructions issued in this regard
should be sent to the Commission immediately after
issue.
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