Chhattisgarh takes major decisions to cut back on govt expenditures

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], May 28 : The Chhattisgarh government has taken several important decisions to cut back on government expenditures and to ensure optimal utilisation of resources available for development-oriented works as the nationwide lockdown has adversely affected the state's revenue collection.
"As per the decisions, creating new posts, transfer, organising meetings inexpensive hotels, foreign tours and purchase of new vehicles has been prohibited and instructions have been given to take economic measures for recruitment on vacancies, promotion and annual salary increment," an official release said.
"As per the instructions issued by state government's Finance Department in the context, recruitment on any and all vacancies, except vacancies of direct recruitment and appointment on compassionate grounds, can be done only after taking permission from the Finance Department. For posts that were earlier approved by the Finance Department but recruitment on these posts was pending, the concerned department will have to take permission again before recruiting on these posts," it added.
The state's Finance Department has directed all the departments to follow the standard procedure for regular promotion, but transfer due to promotion should be avoided by providing temporary upgrade on the same post in the same place.
"Payment of arrears as a result of promotion-up-gradation will remain pending till the next orders of the Finance Department. To control the establishment expenses of departments, the state government has banned creating new posts in all the government departments, public undertakings and municipal bodies with immediate effect. Under special circumstances, new posts can be created after taking permission from Finance Department," the release said.
"As per the transfer policy issued by General Administration Department, transfer of officials and employees has been prohibited. Keeping in view the additional expenses caused due to transfer of employees, departments are expected to keep the transfers to the minimum possible. If urgently required, transfer on one's own expenses should be given preference," it stated.
Other measures include banning of foreign tours, not allowing government officials to travel in business class of flights and first-class compartments of trains under government expenses.
"Unnecessary official tours without approval from competent authority will remain prohibited. Departments have been directed to organise minimum possible meetings and to curtail the expenses on events such as conferences, seminars and government programmes. Urgent meetings-programmes should be organised in government buildings instead of expensive hotels. As far as possible, meetings should be organised via video conferencing and webinar," the release said.
It is stated in the order that departments should commence the extremely important schemes in the current fiscal year itself and the existing ones should be reviewed separately. Departments have been directed to end the schemes that are irrelevant in the current scenario.
According to the release, purchase of new vehicles is completely banned in the fiscal year 2020-21 and only the vehicles required for essential services can be purchased after taking permission from the Finance Department.
"Annual salary increment payable to state government employees from July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2020, has been postponed until further notice. However, this order will not be applicable to government employees retiring before January 1, 2021, and July 1, 2021," it further said.