Representational
The central government employees may soon be able to go abroad on Leave Travel Concession (LTC) as a proposal in this regard has been finalised by the Personnel Ministry, top officials said on Sunday.
Ministry has asked for comments from other departments concerned such as Home, Tourism, Civil Aviation and Expenditure at the earliest possible time. The plan has been mooted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
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The plan proposes to include five central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — under the LTC scheme, the officials said.
There are about 48.41 lakh central government employees, according to the latest data.
The move to allow central government employees to visit these countries is aimed at increasing India’s footprint in the strategically important Central Asian region, they said.
The government, earlier in March, had said that it cancelled a proposal to allow LTC to its employees to visit SAARC countries.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a group of eight nations comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
(With PTI inputs)
