New Delhi:- All non-entitled central
government employees have been allowed to travel by air while availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) with a condition that
reimbursement in such cases shall be restricted to the fare of their entitled
class of train or actual expense.
The
Ministry of Personnel had recently eased norms for processing claims of LTC which allows grant of leave and ticket reimbursement to eligible central
government employees to travel to their home towns and other places.
"Government
employees not entitled to travel by air may travel by any airline. However,
reimbursement in such cases shall be restricted to the fare of their entitled
class of train, transport or actual expense, whichever is less," an order
issued by the Ministry said.
The move
comes after the government received a number of queries in this regard. In many
cases, employees did not have railway station or good road network to their
home towns and they had requested for permission to travel by air to save time,
which was being denied, officials said.
Now, they
will be allowed to travel by air and by any airline, they said. At present,
those entitled to travel by air have to mandatorily travel by Air India.
A
government servant may also apply for advance for himself or his family members
65 days before the proposed date of the outward journey and he or she would be
required to produce the tickets within ten days of the withdrawal of
advance, irrespective of the date of commencement of the journey, as per the
new norms.
There are about 50 lakh
central government employees.
All central government employees have
been asked to share photos and interesting details of their holidays.
The DoPT
has decided to put a limit of one month for verification of LTC claim after the
LTC bill is submitted by government employee for settlement and final payment.
"Efforts
should be made to reduce the duration of processing of LTC applications or
claims at the earliest. The maximum time limit should be strictly adhered to
and non- compliance of time limit should be adequately explained," its
directive said.
