The Maharashtra Government has sent out new guidelines for overseas or foreign travels by bureaucrats and other officials to curb unnecessary travel expenses by limiting such trips every year.
The guidelines were formally issued on Monday by the General Administration Department (GAD) which is helmed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. These guidelines will apply to IAS officers as well as state officials who may have scheduled overseas travel.
Digging through the guidelines reveals that officials are now permitted to only make three foreign trips not exceeding more than 15 days per year.
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Officials have also been advised to reaffirm if the purpose of their foreign trip can be fulfilled without leaving the country. However, overseas trip proposals that are unavoidable or prove to be beneficial to the State Government shall be given due consideration as per the guidelines.
Towards this end, the GAD Secretary has been tasked with certifying the benefits of foreign travel to the state while also ensuring that there is no conflict of interest with regard to officials that are assigned to travel on an overseas trip.
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“All these guidelines, issued previously, have been consolidated for clarity. There is no change in it. The 2016 guidelines applicable to ministers and legislators were related to the political clearance of the cabinet secretary, Ministry of External Affairs with others. These are still applicable,” an official familiar with the matter said.
These proposals will be tabled before a committee chaired by the Chief Secretary who will then pass it on to the CM for the final approval.
Interestingly, despite laying out several new guidelines, they don’t clarify the criteria for foreign trips of ministers and other legislators. It’s worth noting that a similar set of guidelines issued by the previous state administration under BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis in June 2016 included foreign travel limitations on legislators and ministers.
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