Babus' foreign trips may remain flights of fancy

HYDERABAD: The 'golden era' for the Babus who are going aboard literally at the drop of the hat, will soon come to an end. Deeply annoyed over the way the officials particularly IAS, are visiting foreign countries in the name of trainings, study tours and sponsored programmes, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has instructed chief secretary T K Dewan to curb this tendency among the Babus forthwith.
The government will issue an order in a day or two initially banning all sorts of foreign junkets for a period of six months. This is also part of the code of ethics and austerity measures proposed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in her letter to chief ministers. The requests and proposals for foreign visits would be thoroughly scrutinised by the chief secretary and chief minister before according any permission to the officials to bo abroad.
Only 'must' visits, that will involve friendly relations with the countries and donors will be allowed. The state government also proposed to take the permissions from the different ministries at the centre before clearing any proposal, official sources said.
The foreign visits that are being undertaken by the officials for a variety of reasons including learning lessons in good governance to waste disposal management training at different destinations across the World is causing concern to the government. It is said that the chief minister and the chief secretary were lenient in clearing the files pertaining foreign tours by the officials.
Highly placed government sources said that officials from departments like industries, tourism, irrigation, information technology are top in the list in making foreign visits. Some of the officials went abroad accompanied by their spouses on the free tickets they got being a frequent flier. During the last one and half year more than 125 officers of different cadres went abroad.
It is said that every third officer out of the IAS cadre strength of over 300 in the state had abroad during the last one and half years. According to conservative estimates on an average about half a dozen officers visit foreign countries every month, which is high by any standards, a senior officer said.
Couple of senior officers in the rank of principal secretaries to the government are virtually on the move for the past six months occasionally staying in Hyderabad to attend to their official duties. In the past also the then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu banned foreign visits by the officials but subsequently relaxed it to endear himself to the Babus.
Even Rajasekhara Reddy also attempted to control the foreign tours by the officials by trying to bring some discipline in the past but could not succeed.