Headquarters/Home Town LTC: Central Government Employees’ Confusions Continue

Headquarters/Home Town Leave Travel Concession : Central Government Employees’ Confusions Continue

Headquarters / Place of Posting and Home Town LTC: Central Government Employees’ Confusions Continue on this matter

“The number of Central Government employees utilizing the LTC facilities has increased substantially thanks to the initiative of the tourism department to encourage the development of economically-backward states”

Not many would have know this message that there are a number of retired Central Government employees who had completed 40 years of their service without utilizing even a single LTC facility.

“Once upon a time, LTC was considered as a wasteful expense…things have changed, and now people treat it as an indulgence…!”

In the past, not many were interested in LTC because the families were big and only the lowest class journey fare was reimbursed by the Central Government. But, now, LTC includes travel in air-conditioned class and air-fare. Not surprisingly, employees are now very much interested and are utilizing the facility without fail.

Practical difficulties began when a number of employees began to travel. One of them was the situation where the office location and the employee’s hometown are the same. Usually, Central Government employees are posted in towns and cities that are away from their hometown, or their native place. At the time of joining, the employees are required to denote a village or town as their home Town. This cannot be changed.

Once in every four years, the Government would give the option to reimburse the to and fro travel tickets for the employee and his/her family to go to their hometown to meet their relatives and to look after the family’s immovable properties located there. This facility is called the Home Town LTC.

In the past, since only a few utilized this facility, there wasn’t any confusion in implementing them. When the Government announced that Home Town LTC could be converted as All India LTC, troubles began and clarifications were required.

LTC rules state that the headquarter/place of posting and the employee’s Home Town are the same, then he/she is not entitled to the conversion of Home Town LTC.

There are many questions in the minds of the employees about this clause.

Will the facility of Home Town LTC be denied if the headquarters and home town share the same Postal Pin code?

Does this apply if both come under the limits of the same municipality or Panchayat?

Will the 8 KM rule of CGHS apply to this?

Should the home town and headquarters not be located in the same district?

What does the phrase “irrespective of distance,” which is underlined in a number of orders, mean?

Will the interpretation differ from one office to the other?

A number of such doubts prevail among employees.

One thing is for certain – Central Government employees will now be very alert about definitions regarding hometowns.