The Gujarat government has permitted its employees to travel on the Vande Bharat Express train under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme.
Gandhinagar (Gujarat), 13 August : Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has approved a significant decision allowing state government employees to travel on the Vande Bharat Express train under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme.
This decision follows requests from state government employees who sought the inclusion of Vande Bharat train travel in their LTC benefits.
A statement released on Tuesday stated, "State government employees are entitled to LTC benefits every four years, with a limit of 6,000 kilometers. Employees typically travel by train under these concessions. Recently, Indian Railways introduced the Vande Bharat train, equipped with modern amenities. State government employees requested that Vande Bharat train travel be included in their leave travel concession."
"In response to the widespread interest of the employees, Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel has generously decided to include Vande Bharat train travel for LTC, starting from the 2020-23 LTC block," the statement added.
This decision is expected to benefit around five lakh state government employees during their leave travel. The Finance Department will issue a resolution under the Chief Minister's guidance.
In another key decision, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel approved the delivery of Narmada water to farmers and residents of North Gujarat. Due to substantial rainfall upstream of the Narmada Dam, the water level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam has risen, allowing this water to be directed to the lakes in North Gujarat.
The state government has planned to supply Narmada water through 13 different pipelines to a total of 952 lakes across Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, and Sabarkantha districts under the Chief Minister's direction.
Currently, 1,000 cusecs of water are being pumped into these lakes through the pipelines, with plans to gradually increase this to 2,400 cusecs in the coming days.