Govt relaxes norms for employees who could not join office during lockdown

The move comes in the wake of the government receiving several references and queries from the employees who proceeded on leave with necessary permission, but could not report for duty due to travel restrictions.

Now, the government has issued an order to all central government departments mentioning clarifications to the queries by the employees on the issue, with a directive that they should avoid an “unnecessary reference to DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training under the Personnel Ministry) on the subject”.

The Central government employees who were on official tour and were unable to return to their headquarters due to non-availability of public transport should be “deemed to have joined duty on the date of expiry of the official tour, if intimation in any form, indicating difficulty in joining duty due to non-availability of public transport, flights, has been given by the government servant to the office”, the official notification said.

The same provision is applicable for government employees who were on leave before the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, according to the Personnel Ministry order issued on Tuesday.

“In case of leave on medical grounds, this is subject to production of a medical/fitness certificate,” the notification added.

The notification further said that curtailment of a sanctioned leave may not be agreed to in case the leave of government servants expired during the lockdown period.

“Curtailment of a sanctioned leave may not be agreed to unless allowed by the leave sanctioning authority only in rare cases based on official exigency,” the ministry clarified.

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