The people on board the commercial airliners, who will be travelling with these boxes from various state capitals, can consider themselves lucky.
NEW DELHI: The boxes that carry the Presidential ballots to New Delhi will be given royal treatment. The people on board the commercial airliners, who will travelling with these boxes from various state capitals and Union Territories, can consider themselves lucky.
Their flights will be given preferential clearance by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) for take-offs and landings, because of which they could expect to reach Delhi on schedule.
The airlines have to ensure that under no circumstance are these flights cancelled.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed all airlines operating in India to facilitate the air travel of officers and transport election material.
“They have been asked by the DGCA to ensure that all flight schedules are adhered to, and no flights are delayed,” said a civil aviation official.
“It is the obligation of airlines concerned to get in touch with the ATC for necessary follow up action.”
While the state-owned Indian is preferred in most cases, Jet airways will share the privilege for flights from Gauhati and Jaipur. Indigo has been selected for carrying boxes from Manipur.
From the polling stations inside state assemblies, the Presidential ballot boxes will be taken to the airports with a pilot and escort security vehicle in tow.
The EC has issued guidelines that require the boxes to be always kept in the possession of an election official. Under no circumstances can the boxes be moved as a checked-in-luggage.
These will travel only in executive class. An EC official said, “All the assistant returning officers (ARO) who will be bringing the ballot boxes to New Delhi are being allowed to travel by executive class.”
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