The Centre has said it has observed violations with regard to foreign visits of dignitaries that require prior permissions from it and asked all central and state functionaries to strictly comply with the laid-down rules.
The Cabinet Secretariat shot off two letters recently — one marked to all the secretaries in the central government and the other to chief secretaries of states and administrators of UTs — pointing out the same.
“It has been observed that these instructions are not being followed scrupulously and certain cases of violations have been brought to the notice of Government of India…it has been observed that in some cases, these instructions are not being scrupulously followed,” the nearly identical letters says, referring to rules regarding foreign visits stipulated in year 2010 and 2014. The letters ask for strict compliance and scrupulous adherence with the rules.
Last year, a controversy had broken out after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had accused the Centre of “scuttling” his official visit to ‘World Cities Summit’ in Singapore, saying the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre sat on it. The Centre argued that the invitation to Kejriwal was withdrawn by Singapore as the chief minister had applied late for the conference.
The existing rules specify that proposals relating to official visits abroad of central ministers require prior approval of the prime minister. The political clearance of the same has to be obtained from the Ministry of External Affairs before forwarding the proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). In case of foreign travel by chief ministers and ministers of state governments, the PMO should be kept informed of such visits — whether official or private — but the prior political and FCRA clearances for such visits is mandatory, the rules say.
The PMO also needs to be kept informed of the private foreign visits by ministers of the central government with prior political and FCRA clearances being mandatory. During Parliament sessions, private visits also need the approval of the prime minister. Also, the minister and the secretary should not be away from the headquarters at the same time on foreign tour during Parliament sessions, the rules mention.
It is also specified that in case of an international conference abroad, the minister-level visits should be proposed only if has been certified by the MEA that attendance at that conference is going to be at the level of ministers.
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