T.N. Assembly election: State government constitutes Screening Committee to examine proposals to be sent to ECI

On the directions of the Election Commission of India, the Tamil Nadu government has constituted a Screening Committee for scrutinising the Model Code of Conduct references to be sent to the Commission. The Chief Secretary would be the chairperson of the Committee and Public Secretary and Secretary of the respective Department are the members.

“Any proposal which needs the Election Commission of India’s approval on Model Code of Conduct related issues should be sent to the Screening Committee in circulation. After the approval of the Screening Committee, the file/proposal may be sent to the Chief Electoral Officer of the Public (Elections) Department for clearance of the Election Commission of India,” a G.O. issued in this regard said.

As and when the necessity arises, the Screening Committee would meet to discuss the issues. All the Departments in the Secretariat were instructed to follow the directions will the MCC remained in force. As per 4.2.6 of the Manual on Model Code of Conduct, proposals that needed the approval of the ECI under the MCC should invariably be examined by the Screening Committee.

“The Chief Electoral Officer would forward only such proposal which have been cleared by the Screening Committee, with his specific comments to the Election Commission. “The concerned department shall send the original file to office of the Chief Electoral Officer but only a self-contained reference be sent through the Screening Committee. Chief Electoral Officers shall not send any reference to the Election Commission in cases where clear cut instructions exist to deal with,” according to 4.2.6 of the Manual on Model Code of Conduct.