Kolkata, Nov. 9 -- The BJP government in the state has announced a new set of welfare and service benefits for IAS officers. The officers in Bengal will now be allowed to travel abroad once during a specified four-year period, replacing either their home town or All India Leave Travel Concession (LTC).
The list of permitted destinations includes Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Dubai, Mauritius and several Southeast Asian countries. In addition, they will receive up to Rs 60,000 per month as House Rent Allowance (HRA) reimbursement and hospitality allowances of up to Rs 80,000. They will also be eligible for loans of up to Rs 50 lakh for pursuing higher education abroad.
Newly-appointed IAS officers will be provided with laptops or desktops, along with printers, worth up to Rs 2 lakh at the time of joining. The Personnel and Administrative Reforms department has already issued a detailed notification outlining the new provisions.
According to the guidelines, IAS officers who are not provided with government accommodation and do not avail themselves of House Rent Allowance will be eligible for reimbursement of house rent up to Rs 60,000 per month.
This amount will increase by 20 per cent every three years. The hospitality allowance has also been revised. Officers below the rank of Secretary will receive Rs 15,000 per month, while Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Additional Chief Secretaries will be entitled to allowances ranging from Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000.
The new provisions also include educational loans for overseas studies. IAS officers can avail themselves of loans of up to
Rs 50 lakh to cover expenses related to postgraduate education, boarding school fees and foreign travel.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.