Election Commission has permitted video-conferencing by the Chief Minister or concerning Minister with officers in the event of natural calamity.
Earlier, the commission had directed that no video-conferencing will take place between the Chief Minister/Ministers/political functionaries of the Union and State Governments with the officials. The commission reconsidered the matter in the light of certain requests and permitted video-conferencing in the event of natural calamity.
The conditions include that the department concerned will seek permission from CEO of the State before holding video-conferencing. For subsequent video-conferencing, permission will have to be sought from the commission.Only the collector or district magistrate and senior officers in-charge of relief for natural calamity in the concerning area will be called to the video-conferencing. No issue other than rescue/relief and other aspects connected to the calamity will be discussed in the video-conferencing. No publicity will be given to the video-conferencing before and after and it should not be open to media.
The commission has also put the condition that an audio-video recording of the video-conferencing will be maintained by the concerning department and a copy of the same will be provided to the CEO.