GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has instructed all district authorities not to make the Chief Minister's or other ministers' visits to the districts, including Cabinet meetings, extravagant affairs. He wants the district authorities to conduct all such programmes with the bare minimum expenditure.
It has been a trend for district administrations to go for extravagant spending to give a facelift to the district headquarters as and when the Chief Minister or other ministers visit a district. The same is true when cabinet meetings take place in districts. Squeezing the state exchequer into giving a lavish reception to the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues, as often as not, comes under criticism from the public.
The Cabinet meeting held at Gandhi Mandap in Guwahati recently took the decision to cut the cost of such visits by the Chief Minister and other ministers. The Cabinet meeting also approved the expenditure guidelines for such visits to the districts.
The office memorandum from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said, "The responsibility of the district administration during the visit of the Chief Minister to the districts will be limited to accommodation and food only. The officers will bear their own expenditure for accommodation and food, barring a few exceptional cases in which the district administrations will bear the cost."
The office memorandum further said, "In the case of accommodation and food for the Chief Minister, the Chief Minister himself will foot the bills. And the CMO will foot the bills for the expenditure for refreshments, etc., for the official visitors of the Chief Minister. In the case of the conduct of cabinet and review meetings, the district administrations will not incur any additional expenditures. No repair or renovation works are to be carried out for the conduct of Cabinet meetings other than those of a routine nature. For the conduct of Cabinet meetings, the GAD will release an amount of Rs 5 lakh to the district authority concerned."
"The line departments concerned will bear the expenditures in the case of public meetings or programmes attended by the Chief Minister. For the fuel of vehicles comprising the Chief Minister's security convoy, the police authorities will foot the bill," the office memorandum said, adding that similar arrangements will be applicable in the case of official tours or programmes of ministers to the districts.
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