GUWAHATI: In a bid to minimise additional expenditures incurred by district administration during the chief minister and other minister’s visit, the Assam chief minister’s office (CMO on Friday directed the district commissioners not to pay food and accommodation bills of the chief minister or any other minister, but to forward it to the CMO with certified copies for payment.

In a new directive issued by the additional chief secretary of CMO, it was stated that as the chief minister undertakes frequent tours to various districts, desires that during his visits no additional special arrangements are to be made, other than those essential for the smooth conduct of official programme or meetings

“The chief minister desires that during his official tours, the additional expenditure to be incurred by the district administration is to be minimal,” the directive stated.

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The CMO directed that in case of the visits by security personnel and officials from headquarters in connection with tours of the chief minister, the responsibility of the district administration will be limited to facilitating arrangements for their accommodation and for food if required. “All expenditures for accommodation and food of the officials will ordinarily be borne by the officials themselves against which TA and DA will be availed. However, an exception to this norm would be the official lunch or dinner programmes organised by the local administration as part of any official programme,” it stated.

“In case of bill against accommodation and food of the chief minister, the bills will be paid by the chief minister,” it also stated. 

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“In case of expenditure on refreshments etc for official visitors of the chief minister, district administration will submit the certified bills of CMO which will make the payment on priority,” it said.

The order also stated in case of conduct of cabinet/review meetings, the district administration will not incur any additional expenditure other than those which are normally required for meetings. No repair & 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, a lumpsum amount of Rs 5 lakh will be released to the district commissioner by the general administration department (GAD) immediately on finalisation of venue of cabinet meeting, to meet the related expenditure,” it further stated.

In case of any official lunch/ dinner programmes hosted by the chief minister, the certified bills for the same will be submitted by the district commissioner to the CMO for payment, the order also stated.

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It further stated that in the case of official public meetings/ programmes attended by the chief minister, the expenditure will be borne by the concerned line department. In case of a programme involving more than one department, the expenditure will be borne by either a single department or apportioned suitably among the concerned departments, as per the advice of the guardian minister of the district. The departments will process claims made by the district administration for such payments on priority either from the administrative fund of schemes or through regular budget allocation, the order further stated.

“In case of POL provided by the district administration to the convoy of the chief minister and vehicles used by officials of the chief minister’s office, the certified bills for the same will be submitted to CMO along with details of vehicle and user official. POL for security vehicles of the convoy will be provided by police authorities,” it added.

The chief minister has directed that similar arrangements will be applicable in the case of official tours/ programmes of ministers in the districts.