The Election Commission has directed the cabinet secretary to ensure that photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu are removed from the website of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
The scheme is currently being implemented in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh and the Commission received a complaint about the pictures being used on the website.
In a letter to the cabinet secretary, the EC noted that use of photos of the PM and the minister concerned on the website pmaymis.gov.in was a violation of the model code of conduct.
It is also in contravention of the EC’s instruction asking for withdrawal of all references to ministers, politicians and political parties available on central and state government websites.
“The Commission desires to know the reason as to why this was not done before, when the model code was in force (since January 4),” EC wrote to cabinet secretary PK Sinha.
In January, the Commission had written to cabinet secretary, asking for the removal of PM Modi’s photographs from hoardings at petrol pumps in Goa that went to polls on February 4 and gas consumer certificates in the poll-bound state of Uttarakhand.