Govt May Allow LTC For SAARC Countries

New Delhi: The Central government may allow Leave Travel Concession (LTC) facility to its employees for visiting some SAARC countries.

Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh

“A proposal to provide Leave Travel Concession (LTC) to Government employees to visit some SAARC countries is in its initial stage of consideration. The details are yet to be finalized,” Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to a question by M Raja Mohan Reddy in the Lok Sabha today.

He also added that the purpose behind the proposal is to enhance people-to-people contact and bilateral ties in the SAARC region through increase in tourism in the region.   The central government has extended the facility of conversion of home town LTC to visit the states in the North East Region, Jammu & Kashmir and the UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands on September 26, 2014 for a period of two years.This facility was first introduced in the year 2008.

Singh also said, “Presently, no other proposal is under consideration for including more places under the conversion of Home Town LTC to anywhere in the country.”

SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, is the organisation of eight countries in South Asia i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

However, the central government employees may be banned from visiting Afghanistan and Pakistan on LTC on security issues.