The Karnataka government has brought salary, leave, pension, travel, advances and other service-related applications of employees across its departments under the Sakala service guarantee framework, setting deadlines ranging from seven to 90 working days.
Under the order, issuing salary and salary-scale certificates must be completed within three working days. Sanctioning arrears of salary has been assigned a maximum Sakala period of 90 working days, while approval of the senior pay scale and permission to draw the first salary must be completed within 30 working days.
Several routine service matters have been assigned a 15-working-day deadline. These include sanctioning time-bound and annual increments, issuing the final pay certificate after transfer or deputation, approving leave salary, sanctioning vehicle and house-building advances, and setting terms and conditions for officials on foreign service deputation.
Applications related to earned leave, commuted leave, half-pay leave and extraordinary leave, along with sanctioning charge allowance, must be processed within 10 working days. Travel allowance, medical expense reimbursement, pension and gratuity settlements, General Provident Fund advances, partial and final withdrawals, and the settlement of death cases have been assigned a 30-working-day limit.
The order also sets timelines for permissions and certificates frequently required by employees. A no-objection certificate for a passport must be issued within 10 working days, while permission for foreign travel has a 15-working-day limit. Permission for higher studies must be granted within seven working days. Applications to buy or sell a house, site or vehicle must be processed within 30 working days.
Other services covered by the Sakala deadlines include sanctioning festival advances, sending service books and issuing copies of service books, declaring or extending probationary service, correcting names in seniority lists and sanctioning compulsory waiting periods. These services have been assigned deadlines of seven, 15 or 30 working days, depending on the application.
Compassionate appointments and disability allowance approvals have been given a 90-working-day limit. Sanctioning the special allowance for family-planning compliance has been assigned a 30-working-day deadline.
The move extends the time-bound service approach beyond public-facing certificates and applications to the internal administrative processes that determine when government employees receive salaries, benefits, reimbursements, permissions and retirement-related settlements. For employees, the stated deadlines provide a defined timeframe for processing applications instead of leaving such matters without a specified service limit.
The order covers staff in various departments of the state government. The published report does not specify the enforcement mechanism, escalation process or penalties applicable when the deadlines are not met. Those details, along with the date of the government order, were not provided in the source report.
