Leave Travelling Concession (LTC) and Travelling Settlement
Free Thinker:
My daughter asked me whether the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister
can avail LTC (Leave Travelling Concession). I said, "most probably they
can, they are also government employees". She further asked whether
they actually claim. I told her, "not sure whether they claim or not,
but years ago I read in the newspaper that one PM was in Kerala on a
vacation". Again, not very sure whether he avail LTC or not.
The
stories of travel settlements are available everywhere. Even a story of
settlement claim by Hanumanji came up; the dealing assistant refused to
clear Hanumanji's file and put many objections - he is not entitled to
fly; he was not supposed to bring a mountain; he did not clear the
mountain till date; moreover, no travel documents are submitted; his
flying included foreign land; he flew without passport and visa etc.
etc. Nobody could over-rule the objections put by the dealing assistant.
Hanumanji went to Ramji for help. As usual Ramji told him, 'please
don't drag me into this'; he asked Hanumanji to go to Laxmanji.
Hanumanji went to Laxmanji for his indulgence. Laxmanji called the file
and overruled all the objections with the following replies: though he
is not entitled to fly, he flew on emergency; as he is not a medical
practitioner he could not identify the plant (medicinal) , so he brought
the mountain in good faith; for clearing the mountain a different
Department will look into; as far as his foreign trips are concerned he
got the oral order from the highest competent authority; the file is
cleared and needful must be done immediately.
It must be a fact
that 99 percent of the employees avail LTC. Leave Travelling Concession
is given to all the State and Central government employees. Generally,
they can avail it once in two years or in other words 2 times in 4 years
(which is officially called a block year). Most of the government
employees enjoy this facility. First because this is an opportunity for
the whole family (dependent members) of the government employee to
travel together and have fun together or go to their home-town or
home-village. It is not mandatory to travel together, but in most of the
cases they do travel together.Some may travel by Air or some may travel
by Train or by Bus according to their position/level in the government
hierarchy. Even within the Air category some are entitled for the
Executive or 'J' class and some are for the 'Y' or Economy class. For
the Railways, the categorization is made on the basis of entitlement -
AC1, AC2, AC3, First class, Sleeper, etc. Even for the buses there are
hierarchical categories - First class, Deluxe, Non-Deluxe, Ordinary etc.
One
retired Babu who was dealing with the settlement of Travel expenses and
LTC claims narrated a story of group LTC fabrication. Many families of
government employees used to go to Vrindavan along with their family
availing LTC. There were many tour operators for Vrindavan. Actually,
they were the bus owners who conducted group trips to Vrindavan. One
trip is for about 20 days. Many government employees went to Vrindavan
on LTC through these tour operators. Objections were put; they must have
traveled by government transport; it is a packaged trip (fare part
unclear); no prior approval was taken to travel by private buses (tour
operators) etc. These objections were cleared by the higher authority
saying that the fare part of the claim may be segregated and settle the
claims.( Travel by private buses allowed ).
Then a roaring
business had started; for instance, "Trip to Vrindavan and nearby places
on LTC" by such and such Tour Operator. Many did not go but started
claiming LTC for their entire family, submitting bogus bus tickets from
these private tours and travels. It became a rampant nuisance and almost
had turned into a scandal. One internal enquiry was set up to look into
such doubtful claims.
The proprietor of the concerned tour
operator was summoned to examine the tickets allegedly issued by his
firm; whether they actually issued those tickets. He saw the tickets and
said "these are fake". Then the claimants were called to defend
themselves. They went to the highest authority to save their jobs. Then
the competent authority issued an order saying that for the unreliable
tickets other credible evidences of their respective travels must be
submitted. Consequently, the hell loose large; some brought Jamuna water
in a bottle, some brought Bal Gopal figurines, Radha-Krishna pictures,
some brought photographs (studio made) clicked in Vrindavan &
Mathura; some brought Vrindavan chandan, Vrindavan stone, Vrindavan
chaadar etc. After examining these credible evidences the settlements
were allowed. These evidences are still kept for future reference and
'precedence'. These days LTC/travel claims are easily verified on the
click of a mouse as a result of massive computerization and 24-hour
internet. So be careful while settling your bogus claims and fake bills.
Source: The Sangai Express
