Meghalaya Cab caps foreign visits by Govt officials at 2 in a year. State Govt’s austerity measure?

The Meghalaya Cabinet on Friday decided to put a cap on the number of foreign visits by government officials.

As per the decision, if the same government official has to visit a foreign country for a second time, then he or she will have to submit the action taken and progress report of the first visit.

The Cabinet further decided to cap the number of foreign visits by government officials to just two in a financial year.

Briefing the media about the Cabinet’s decision in Shillong, Minister and Meghalaya government spokesperson Paul Lyngdoh said, “The attention of the government today was the need to rationalize and limit foreign visits by officials of the state government. Of course several of these visits are on the basis of invitations, conferences, delegations in pursuing various programs like externally aided projects, training, capacity building programs etc. But taking into account the fiscal limitations the Cabinet decided to rationalize these visits. It was decided henceforth that foreign visit of any official of the state government including contractual staff will be limited to 2 visits for a financial year.”

He said, “On his/her ability to submit a satisfactory report with tangible results than only his/her second visit will be cleared. We also have decided that the state government can sponsor one visit and the next will have to be borne either by Government of India or an external agency. The only exception will happen only if that official is visiting a foreign country to receive the work on behalf of the Government of India.”