Members of the CPM-affiliated National Library Employees Union, who decided to fly to Assam to spend their holidays, have been caught in a controversy after the Pay and Accounts Department rejected their reimbursement bills, saying the air tickets submitted by them are not authentic.

“We want that the bills of our members should be paid. But I cannot comment on the issue right now,” said Rathin Das, president of the union.

About 60 members of the union went to Assam along with their families on a five-day vacation from November 21 to November 26.

However, when they submitted their LTA bills, the pay and accounts department found a number of anomalies in the e-tickets booked by them. (Documents are available with The Indian Express).

For instance, in one bill, that of Sushil Kumar Das (Head Guard), the department noticed that the ticket number, PNR number, date of issue and the name of booking agent’s code were missing from the e-ticket.

Due to other such glaring anomalies, the department returned the bill to the National Library authorities saying, “It is not understood how the authenticity of the tickets have been verified by the controlling officer in the absence of these vital information on the e-tickets.”

But soon after the bills were returned, the CPM-backed union launched a protest against the authorities demanding payments be made soon.

“The Pay and Accounts Department has raised certain objections and I have sent my reply in this regard. However, a detailed report is yet to reach me. I will definitely probe the issue if anomalies are proved,” said K K Banerjee, Director of the National Library.