JAIPUR, NOV 20: The much-trumpeted ``chintan baithak'' of the Rajasthan council of ministers deliberated on a bold exercise to reduce establishment expenses and mobilise resources to arrest the current economic crisis here on Friday.The two-day review of its performance by the Congress government headed by Ashok Gehlot, began on Thursday. The meeting at the Harish Chandra Mathur Rajasthan Institute of Public Administration was attended by 29 of the 31 ministers.According to sources, the ministers deliberated on a proposal to reduce an outflow of funds to stop the level travel concession and the leave encashment facilities for employees, apart from limiting the maximum official tour period to three days a month. A uniform ceiling on telephone bills for both ministers and officers from their residential connections was suggested. There was yet another proposal to give a handsome allowance to officers instead of official vehicles.These suggestions basically emanated from a feeling in the government thatthe financial crisis had its roots in the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission report. Therefore, any meaningful exercise to bring the economy back on the rails had to begin from a curtailment of payments made to its own employees. Since the pay-scales could not be brought down, the sole course left to the government was to strike at the side-benefits of the staff. The government, in a break from a 12-year-old practice, denied the Diwali-eve bonus to employees this year. The employees would have been, in fact, forced to do without salaries this month, but for some desperate measures by the government to mop up funds for the purpose. Gehlot told the meeting that these measures included the diversion of Rs 50-crore from the Rajasthan Finance Corporation and withholding of medical and tour bills of the employees.Sources said several ministers had yesterday and today flayed Finance Minister Chandan Mal Baid for shooting down proposals from their departments, while Baid pointed out that he wasdictated only by the financial condition of the state.It is felt that with the meeting, Gehlot is actually seeking to generate a mood for a cabinet reshuffle.
