Leave Travel Concession for College and University Employees

Government of West Bengal
Department of Higher Education, Science &
Technology and Biotechnology
C.S. Branch
Bikash Bhawan, Salt Lake, Kolkata – 700 091.

No. 375-Edn(CS) dated: 13/04/2017

NOTIFICATION

The proposal for allowing the benefits of Leave Travel Concession for the regular Teachers, Librarians and Physical Instructors and Graduate Laboratory Instructors of State aided Universities and Govt. aided Colleges of West Bengal was under active consideration of the Government for sometime past.

The Government, after careful consideration is now pleased to allow the following benefits to the regular and whole time teachers, including Librarians and Physical Instructors and Graduate Laboratory Instructors of the State-aided Universities and Government-aided colleges in the manner stated below:-

(A) Entitlement of the benefit:

a) The teachers of State-aided Universities and Government-aided Colleges of West Bengal may be allowed the benefit of leave travel concession once in their service career to visit any place within the country, but the benefit may be availed of by them after completion of 10 (ten) years of regular service

b) They also may be allowed the benefit of leave travel concession once in their service career to visit any place in the neighbouring countries, namely, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, but the benefit may be availed of by them only after completion of 20 (twenty) years of regular service.

(B) Kinds of Journeys admissible:

The teachers, who will be entitled to the leave travel concession as per paragraph (A) above, will be granted the concession for the following kinds of journeys:

a) For journeys to any place in India and back.

b) For journeys to any place in the neighboring countries and back as per sub para(b) of paragraph (A) above.

(C) ‘Family’ for the purpose of leave travel concession:

a) The leave travel concession, sanctioned hereby, will be admissible to the members of the family of the teachers and for this purpose the term ‘family’ means ‘a teacher’s wife (but not more than one wife) or husband, as the case may be, residing with the teacher and legitimate children and stepchildren residing with and wholly dependent on the teacher including parent, stepmother, unmarried sisters and minor brothers residing with and wholly dependent on the teacher’.

b) When the teacher is entitled to leave travel concession, the family members need not compulsorily accompany the teacher, they will get the concession independently irrespective of whether the teacher avails himself/herself of it or not. The members of the family may either travel together or separately in different groups as may be convenient to them. The teacher and/or member(s) of his/her family may visit the same place or different places of their choice.

c) Where a teacher and his family perform journeys separately, in different groups at different times, there may be no objection to their presenting separate claims, provided the journeys are performed during the currency of the period during which it is due.

(D) Declaration of place of visit:

When the concession to visit any place in India or in foreign countries as stated above is proposed to be availed of by a teacher or any member of the family of such a teacher, the intended place of visit will have to be declared by the teacher in advance to his/her Controlling Authority. The declared place of visit may be changed before the commencement of the journey with the approval of his controlling authority, but it may not be changed after the commencement of the journey except in exceptional circumstances where it is established that the request for change could not be made before the commencement of the journey owing to circumstances beyond the control of the concerned teacher.

(E) Mileage Allowance and Class of accommodation:

a) For journeys to any place of India and back on leave travel concession, the teachers will be entitled to undertake journeys by rail in the A.C-II class 2 tire sleeper.

b) For journeys to any place of neighbouring countries and back on leave travel concession, the teachers will be entitled to undertake air journey from the international airport in India nearest to his/her headquarter/place of posting in economy class by National carrier or private carrier of the country having direct flight to the country of visit and in the absence of which by a foreign carrier having direct flight to the country of visit.

c) For journey to Agartala in Tripura, since surface routes are circuitous and troublesome, the teachers who will select that place for visit on leave travel concession, will be allowed to travel by air in economy class subject to the condition that the journeys will have to be performed by a national carrier or the actual fare for the journeys performed by private Airlines, whichever is less.

d) For journeys to place like Port Blair in the ‘Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ and ‘Laskhadweep’ Group of Islands, journey shall be performed by Ships operated by the Shipping Corporation of India, in First/ ‘A’ Cabin Class of accommodation.

e) For journey to place in India including popular hill stations which are not connected by rail and so in such cases where road journey is unavoidable, besides the railway-fare as will be admissible, public transport from the rail-head to the actual destination may be availed of subject to the condition that reimbursement will be limited to the fare for the cheapest mode of transport available for such road journeys.

f) For journeys to any place in India including port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Laskhadweep Group of Islands, the teachers may be allowed to avail air Journeys by National carrier or private Airlines in the lowest class of accommodation, but re-imbursement will be limited to entitled class of accommodation by rail or ship, as the case may be and by the shortest route available for the declared place of visit.

g) The leave travel concession will not be admissible if the journeys are made through some package tour agencies or by a private car or vehicle, owned by private operators. However, if the journey is performed by vehicles owned and operated by Tourism Development Corporations’ in Public Sector, State Transport Corporations and Transport Sen/ices run by other Govt. or local bodies to visit the declared place, the reimbursement will be either the actual hire charges or the amount reimbursable on the journey to the declared place of visit, had the journey been undertaken by entitled class by rail by the shortest direct route, whichever is less.

(F) Admissibility of leave travel concession in case of the spouse of the teachers:

The benefit of leave travel concession in case of the spouse of the teacher will be regulated in the following manner:-

i) If the spouse of the teacher is not employed, the benefit may be drawn as per the provisions made hereby in this notification.

ii) If the spouse of the teacher is also a teacher of State aided Universities and Government aided Colleges of West Bengal, the benefit may be enjoyed by both husband and wife together as a one family unit in the teacher’s family and in that case the spouse will give an undertaking that he/she will not prefer any claim in this behalf to his/her employer in future and that fact should be recorded in his/her Service Book.

iii) When the spouse of the teacher is employed in the State Government/Central Government/Central PSUs/State PSUs/Corporation/ Autonomous Body which provides LTC facilities to its employees and their families, the teacher if enjoyed the benefit as a member of the family of the spouse will not be entitled to enjoy the benefit of LTC hereby sanctioned.

iv) When the spouse of the teacher is employed in the State PSUs/Corporation/Non-Government aided Institutions/Autonomous Body where the facility of LTC does not exist, the spouse of the teacher may be allowed to enjoy the benefit along with the concerned teacher as a member of the family subject to furnishing a declaration to his/her controlling authority that in future he/she will not enjoy the benefit of LTC, if the benefit is extended to the organization/institute in future by the Government and the said declaration should be recorded in his/her Service Book.

(G) Reimbursement:

Reimbursement under the leave travel concession facility will not cover incidental expenses and expenditure incurred on local journeys.

Reimbursement for expenses of journey shall be allowed on the basis of a point to point journey on a through ticket over the shortest direct route.

(H) Claim for reimbursement:

The claim for reimbursement in respect of leave travel concession under the provisions of this notification will have to be made in the usual T.A. Bill Form and the claims would have to be preferred within 3 (three) months of completion of journey along with Railway/Air/Ship/Bus tickets in original. Any claim if detected to be fraudulent, will be dealt with according to rule.

The Controlling Officer for such sanction of LTC will be the Joint Secretary (University Branch), Deptt. of Higher Education, Science & Technology and Biotechnology and Director of Public Instruction, West Bengal in respect of Stated-aided Universities and Govt.-aided colleges respectively.

The charge will be debitable to the head, “31-01-Salary grants” under the respective salary heads of the Stated-aided Universities and Govt.-aided colleges.

This benefit will take effect from 1st February, 2017.

This is issued with the concurrence of the Finance Deptt. Group P2 vide their U.O. No. Group P2/2016-2017/0531 dt. 14/02/2017.

By order of the Governor,

Sd/- Secretary

No. 375-Edn dated 13.04.2017, Source