Visit anywhere in country on LTC: Government to unmarried employees

New Delhi: Unmarried central government employees can now avail benefits of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) for visiting any part of the country, as per a relaxation in the rule, which earlier restricted them to use the facility for going to their hometown only.

"It has been decided that the facility of conversion of home town LTC to allow travel to different parts of the country, under the special dispensation scheme, will also apply to an unmarried central government servant, who is eligible to avail the benefit of LTC to visit hometown every year," a fresh order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), said.

The facility may be availed by converting one occasion of hometown LTC out of the block of four years, it said.

As per norms, an eligible government employee gets to and fro journey reimbursement after availing LTC. However, employees are supposed to undertake the visit from the place of their posting to their hometown.

The DoPT has been allowing special dispensation to the government servants for taking LTC from time to time by relaxing rules.

Presently, one such dispensation in operation is the relaxation for the government servants to travel by air to visit North East region, Jammu and Kashmir or to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by converting one block of hometown LTC available to them.

The DoPT has received references seeking clarification on the admissibility of conversion of hometown LTC facility into travel to different parts of the country, which is permissible under special dispensation, to such unmarried government servants.

The matter was examined in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and it has been decided to allow unmarried government employees to visit any other part of the country under the LTC scheme, it said.