Would anyone in their right mind go from Delhi to Jaipur via Sao Paulo? Or travel from Mumbai to Port Blair via Dubai? The suggestion is crazy, you might say. But this is precisely what a couple of top PSU officials have done to claim their leave travel concession (LTC).
More and more such bizarre examples of LTC abuse are coming out since TOI broke the scam on Thursday. As the scope of the investigation, which has been referred by the CVC to the CBI, is widening, sources say the magnitude of the rip-off is simply growing.
Coming back to the worthy who needed to travel just 520 km - the distance from Delhi to Jaipur and back - but apparently ended up travelling over 28,884 km - the distance from Delhi to Sao Paulo and back - and more, as he went to Jaipur too, the route he devised is an example of a really ingenious mind.
He took off from Jaipur, landed in Mumbai, and from there flew to Sao Paulo in Brazil (obviously with a stopover or two, as there's no direct Mumbai-Sao Paulo flight) and finally reached Delhi, via Mumbai. If he had indeed undertaken this journey, what would have normally been a 45-minute Delhi-Jaipur flight became an odyssey of anything between 48 and 72 hours.
Obviously, he wouldn't have done anything as silly. What is equally obvious is how far government and PSU employees are going to fleece the government in the name of availing LTC.
The Central Vigilance Commission is believed to be verifying this particular case. Sources said when the details of this circuitous trip emerged those who were supposed to take action recommended that the executive be let off without any punishment. Now in the wake of more evidence emerging of LTC misuse, the CVC has ordered a re-examination of the case, sources said.
In Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), where over 100 officials are facing probe for falsifying LTC claim, one senior official responsible for clearing LTC payment actually claimed that she travelled from Port Blair to Mumbai via Dubai. The bizarre travel claim is only one of the many that were approved by SCI without any questions being asked.
The particular officer who claimed that she travelled from Port Blair to Mumbai via Dubai claimed Rs 131,653 in 2009 for the alleged travel for herself, husband and their daughter, according to documents available with TOI.
On August 16, the TOI reported that the CVC had called in the CBI to investigate the scandal. Among those facing probe are officials in the Rajya Sabha secretariat, ordnance factory board and at least 150 employees of SCI. Most of the SCI staffers under scrutiny are senior executives including a former chairman and a director who submitted forged or exaggerated tickets issued by two private travel agents based in Mumbai.
More and more such bizarre examples of LTC abuse are coming out since TOI broke the scam on Thursday. As the scope of the investigation, which has been referred by the CVC to the CBI, is widening, sources say the magnitude of the rip-off is simply growing.
Coming back to the worthy who needed to travel just 520 km - the distance from Delhi to Jaipur and back - but apparently ended up travelling over 28,884 km - the distance from Delhi to Sao Paulo and back - and more, as he went to Jaipur too, the route he devised is an example of a really ingenious mind.
He took off from Jaipur, landed in Mumbai, and from there flew to Sao Paulo in Brazil (obviously with a stopover or two, as there's no direct Mumbai-Sao Paulo flight) and finally reached Delhi, via Mumbai. If he had indeed undertaken this journey, what would have normally been a 45-minute Delhi-Jaipur flight became an odyssey of anything between 48 and 72 hours.
Obviously, he wouldn't have done anything as silly. What is equally obvious is how far government and PSU employees are going to fleece the government in the name of availing LTC.
The Central Vigilance Commission is believed to be verifying this particular case. Sources said when the details of this circuitous trip emerged those who were supposed to take action recommended that the executive be let off without any punishment. Now in the wake of more evidence emerging of LTC misuse, the CVC has ordered a re-examination of the case, sources said.
In Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), where over 100 officials are facing probe for falsifying LTC claim, one senior official responsible for clearing LTC payment actually claimed that she travelled from Port Blair to Mumbai via Dubai. The bizarre travel claim is only one of the many that were approved by SCI without any questions being asked.
The particular officer who claimed that she travelled from Port Blair to Mumbai via Dubai claimed Rs 131,653 in 2009 for the alleged travel for herself, husband and their daughter, according to documents available with TOI.
On August 16, the TOI reported that the CVC had called in the CBI to investigate the scandal. Among those facing probe are officials in the Rajya Sabha secretariat, ordnance factory board and at least 150 employees of SCI. Most of the SCI staffers under scrutiny are senior executives including a former chairman and a director who submitted forged or exaggerated tickets issued by two private travel agents based in Mumbai.
Source:-The Times of India
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