new delhi the election commission asked the cabinet secretary on thursday to ensure that ministries dont approach it directly for model code clearance of cabinet matters and also to give the panel a minimum of 48 hours for processing such references a miffed poll panel noted a tendency is being observed to flout the commissions instructions this is the second such communication from the ec to the cabinet secretary in the past week matters relating to cabinet are sent directly to the commission and that too in last moment leaving no time to the ec to appropriately consider the issue it leads to undue pressure on the commission to give priority to such reference over its other urgent timebound business the ec wrote to cabinet secretary p k sinha expressing unhappiness the ec asked sinha to impress upon all ministries and departments of the government to strictly adhere to the its guidelines on poll code references while making a reference to the commission it should specifically be ensured that at least 48 hours are available to the commission for processing of such reference so as to convey its decision in time otherwise it would be very difficult for the commission to entertain such references it warned on january 27 the poll watchdog had taken umbrage to ministries and departments such as finance ministry defence ministry and niti aayog failing to seek its concurrence before taking decisions which had the potential of disturbing the level playing field in pollbound states finance ministrys decision to advance presentation of the budget without taking the poll panel on board too did not go down well with the commission