New Delhi, Aug. 5 :     Defence minister George Fernandes did not take the mandatory clearance from the Prime Minister?s Office to use an Aviation Research Centre aircraft for his visit to Chakrata. He was accompanied by former RAW chief Arvind Dave and Samata Party general secretary Jaya Jaitly. Asked whether Fernandes had sought clearance, the PMO refused comment. But it admitted that ?subsequently, the Prime Minister did issue orders that no Cabinet minister be allowed to use ARC aircraft?, particularly with polls round the corner. Fernandes, Dave and Jaitly went on a secret trip to Chakrata ? a high-security base of the Special Security Bureau and the ARC ? on the Uttar Pradesh-Himachal Pradesh border on May 20 and 21. The three are believed to have flown in a 16-seater ARC executive jet fitted with sensitive security and surveillance equipment. The jet is reserved for the sole use of the RAW chief and other senior officials of the agency. The functions of the ARC, which is under the administrative control of the directorate-general of security in the Cabinet secretariat, is supervised by RAW. It carries out air and electronic surveillance over Pakistan and other neighbouring nations. All Cabinet ministers and officials are required to obtain permission to use the aircraft. Their requests are routed through the Cabinet secretariat, which sends a note to the PMO for approval. Questions are being raised by officials in the security set-up about the nature of Fernandes? Chakrata visit five days before Operation Vijay began. Some officers said Dave took Fernandes to Chakrata to show him satellite images of the extent of the Pakistani intrusion. If that was the case, Fernandes would be expected to submit a written report on the briefing to the Prime Minister, sources in the security establishment said. But there is no evidence of such a report having been received by the PMO. Questions are also being raised as to why the trio had to stay over at the base. Jaitly had told The Telegraph that she went there to ?attend a cultural programme organised by a school?, and had been joined by some other women. ?Since when have ARC aircraft been used to ferry people who want to attend cultural programmes?? an official asked. He added that the government should inquire who or which agency gave the ladies permission to enter Chakrata. Cabinet secretariat sources recalled that in 1989, the then RAW chief A.K. Verma had refused to provide an executive jet to Vice-President S.D. Sharma despite a request from Cabinet secretary T.N. Seshan.