Economy drive in Goa:Officers to fly in low-cost airlines:Rane

Panaji, Nov 10 (UNI) In a drastic economy drive, the Goa government has decided to allow its officers to fly in low-cost airlines only besides resorting to e-procurement of various goods for government department instead of incurring huge expenditure on newspaper advertisements.

Dislosing these decisions of the Cabinet after it met at the state secretariat today, Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane said flying of the officers in economically cheaper airlines meant fixing fiscal responsibility.

He had also announced that the government would henceforth upgrade the payscales pending the sixth pay commission report.

Ban on purchase of new vehicles and recruitment to group-D service personnel(peons and drivers) with effect from March 1 next year were some of the other stringent measures the government would enforce.

The vehicles would be hired under the advice of a panel of officers from the general administration and the transport departments while the people required for Group-D services would be outsourced, Mr Rane said.

The benefits under the public distribution system would be made available to families with Rs 2 lakh annual income.

The block development officers were made responsible for enforcing various developmental schemes. All the extension officers had to work under the BDO's who in turn had to evolve mechanism for devolution of powers to panchayats, Mr Rane added.

The cabinet had also approved allotment of 25 acres of prime land each to the information technology leader Wipro and the proposed international convention centre at Dona Paula plateau.

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