Government employees to get leave travel concession for SAARC nations

Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh has said that the Centre is finalising a proposal which would allow Central Government employees to claim leave travel concession (LTC) for trips to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.

According to reports, Singh said that the new LTC rules have been made in order to promote people-to-people contact and to boost tourism among the SAARC nations.

With this rule, Central government employees will be able to avail of the LTC facility for trips to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Pakistan is the only SAARC nation which has not been included in the scheme.

This decision comes after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre had extended the facility of conversion of home town LTC to visit Jammu and Kashmir, the North East states and Andaman and Nicobar up to September 25, 2016.