Saturday, 27 February 2016

Circle Working Committee Meeting of AIPSBCOEA, West Bengal Circle will be held on 12th March’2016 at Tarapada Memorial Hall.

Notice copy…

Thursday, 25 February 2016


Meeting of the Empowered Committee of secretaries (E-CoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary on 7th Central Pay Commission recommendation with members of the Standing Committee of the JCM National Council Staff Side will be held on 1st March 2016 at 06:45 PM.


Thursday, February 25, 2016


Implementation of Recommendation of 7th CPC- Minutes of the Meeting of Joint Secretary (IC) with the Members of the Staff-Side of the Standing Committee (National Council-JCM) held on 19.02.2016  CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

List of Nodal Officers for implementation of 7th CPC recommendations TO VIEW, PLEASE CLICK HERE. 


Reminder from Joint Secretary (IC) to Nodal Officers for expediting the comments   TO VIEW, PLEASE CLICK HERE. 




Copy of NCCPA/s letter to the Joint Secretary, Implementation Celll. New Delhi.

President:                   Com. Shiv Gopal Misra..97176 47594
Secretary General:     Com. K.KN. Kutty. . 98110 48303



Shri R.K. Chathurvedi,
Joint Secretary, Implementation Cell,
Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance,
North Block New Delhi. 110 001.

Dear Sir,

Sub: 7thCPC recommendations on retirement benefits- Reg.

            The National Co-ordinating Committee of Pensioners Association is the apex organisation of Associations/Federations of Central Government Pensioners.  We had submitted a detailed memorandum to the 7th CPC on various demands, problems and grievances of the Central Government Pensioners.  However, it must be sadly admitted that most of the issues, which we had projected before the Commission did not have a proper consideration, may be perhaps, due to the Commission’s perceived anxiety over the financial constrains of the Government of India.  We have every reason to believe that their anxiety was not well placed, for the Government’s finances are far better presently than what it was two decades back.  The memorandum submitted by the Staff Side JCM National Council had elaborately dealt with the issue concerning the relative capacity of the Government to pay its employees and pensioners in the background of accelerated  growth of the economy, reduced tax burden on both business houses and the common people the reduced  percentage of expenditure on wages, salary and pension with reference to the Government’s revenue resources, revenue expenditure and the GDP itself.  The denial of the need based minimum wage,(in accordance wit Dy. Aykhroyd formula) in other words, the bare existence wage in the circumstance by the 7th CPC is incomprehensible.  We are pointing out this aspect of the recommendations,  for the successive earlier Commissions had denied the need based minimum wage on the specious plea of the inability of the Government to pay.   We hope you will appreciate that the present pensioners, who were in active service in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, did suffer immensely as they were denied even the bare existence wages.  They suffered on many counts, as they could not provide a decent standard of living to their families, could not construct a residential dwelling, could not educate their children properly for sheer want of requisite finances, so on and so forth.  The Pensioners’ community is presently concerned again with the minimum wage as the re-fixation of  pension on account of the wage revision effected by the 7th CPC is linked to the minimum wage.  We, therefore, appeal that the grievances presented by the Staff Side, National Council JCM on the determination of the quantum of minimum wage by the 7th CPC must be considered seriously and necessary corrections made. 
            Another important issue we would like to present before you,  concerns the New Pension Scheme introduced by the Government of India, with effect from. 1.1.2014.  Both the Serving employees and Pensioners organisations placed before the Commission, rather passionately, to consider their submissions made for the replacement of the newly introduced defined contributory system of pension for those who entered the Government of India Service from.1.1.2014 with the time tested defined benefit scheme of pension.  As of date the Government employees,  by virtue of the new contributory pension scheme are divided into two classes viz.  a good number of them receive emoluments after deduction of 10% towards pension contribution  whereas the other for the same job is provided with a higher rate of emoluments.  It is nothing but a blatant denial of equal pay for equal work.  We had pointed out to the Commission in no uncertain terms that the new scheme was conceived as an idea to allow the flow of the hard earned income of the employees to the Stock market and  permit the access of those funds for the corporate houses with no guaranteed return to the contributor.  We had pleaded before the Commission to recommend for the exclusion of the Government employees from the purview of the NPS, if the scrapping of the scheme  is infeasible in the light of the enactment of PFRDA.  The Commission, as you could see from the report, has enumerated innumerable flaws, defects, deficiencies and what not in the administrative apparatus of the NPS, which has now  amassed huge funds and its coffers are swelling enormously day by day.  They have still not evolved a mechanism to monitor the remittances by the concerned employers. The Commission has suggested in the light of their findings, cosmetic remedial measures which in all fairness one should admit,  will not address the issue.  In short, the Commission has not been  emboldened  to make a positive recommendation for the exclusion of the Central Government employees from its ambit, even though they have been convinced of the force of our submissions and arguments.  We may also state that the Commission which was anxious of the increased  financial outflow on account of the revision of wages and pension did not, rather failed to recognise the enormous outflow of tax payers money to the pension fund in the form of Governmental Contributions. Without stating the various other demerits of the New Contributory Pension Scheme, as it has been oft-repeated, we plead that the Government employees be excluded from the Contributory Pension scheme and all of them irrespective of their date of recruitment be brought within the purview of the time tested defined benefit pension system.
            Besides the submissions made in the preceding paragraphs, we enumerate here under some specific issues concerning pensioners and request the Implementation Committee to consider the same and place it before the empowering committee for  acceptance. 
1.      Parity between the past and present pensioners be brought about on the basis of the 7th CPC recommendations with the modification that the basis of computation be the pay level of the post/grade/scale of pay from which the employee retired, whichever is beneficial to him.
            The 7th CPC has recommended the modus operandi for bringing about parity between the past and present pensioners.  While issuing orders in acceptance of this recommendation, we urge upon that care may be taken to provide the benefit to the pensioners as envisaged by the Commission in its letter and spirit.  Often we find when the orders are issued, the same is interpreted by the pension disbursing authority in such a manner that the envisaged benefit is denied to the deserving personnel on flimsy technical grounds.  We want you to appreciate that it is not a perceived grievance but a real and genuine one.  To cite a recent example:, When the orders on the question of modified parity was issued after the 6th CPOC recommendation, the  benefit was denied to a large number of pensioners by such an interpretation made by the Offices of the Controller General of Accounts.  The issue had to be agitated in the Central Administrative Tribunal, where the CGA’s interpretation was set aside.  The Government dragged the poor pensioners upto the highest court of justice in the country, the Supreme Court, before the concerned order was amended.  Even in the amended order, care was not taken to convey the benefit to certain pensioners fully on the specious plea that the words employed in the original orders speaks only of the scale of pay and not of the revised scale of pay.  It is highly unethical to drag the pensioners to the Courts. They are compelled to bear the huge expenditure involved in the litigation at the level of the Supreme Court . To avoid the recurrence of such a scenario, we plead that the orders must specify in unambiguous terms, that the parity must be with reference to the level of pay of an individual employee of the post/grade/scale of pay from which he/she retired, whichever is beneficial to that individual.   This is to take care of the situation where the concerned Government servant had been  granted MACP, or the pay scale/pay band/grade pay/ had been revised by the  Government either suo motu or on the basis of the recommendation of the Pay Commission.
2.      Pension to be 60% of the last pay drawn  and family pension to be 50% of the last pay drawn.   Minimum pension to be 60% of the minimum wage and minimum family pension to be 50% of the Minimum wage.
            In our memorandum, we had demanded that pension to be 66.6% of the last pay drawn and the minimum pension to be 66.66% of the minimum wage. The CPC has not conceded this demand. Our present request in the matter is that the pension must be fixed at 60% of the last pay drawn and the minimum pension at the rate of 60% of the minimum wage.  This is on the ground that minimum wage is computed taking into account the family consisting of three units of two adults and two children ( i.e. 1+0.8+0.6+0.6=3) Since the requirement of the children can be excluded in the case of pensioners,  the rational approach will be to provide 60% of the minimum wage as the minimum pension  Both the pension and the minimum pension has to be at the rate of 60% of the last pay drawn (or average emoluments) and the minimum wage respectively.  The present stipulation of computing the pension at the rate of 50% and the minimum pension at 50% of the minimum wage has no basis at all. Family pension is granted mostly in the case of the surviving spouse or unmarried or widowed daughter.  To reduce the pension beyond 10% is to heap misery and agony on the survivors.  Our suggestion in the matter is that the surviving member of the family be provided with at least   50% of the pension.
3.      Enhance the pension and family pension on the basis of the increased age of the pensioner. Grant 5% rise in pension for every addition of 5 years of age, 10% after attaining the age of 80 and 20% for those beyond 90. 
            The decaying process of physique gets accelerated normally after 60 years of age.  To keep one fit, after the age of 60, increased expenses on various counts are needed.  It was in recognition of this fact that the earlier Pay Commission suggested to calibrate the pension entitlement linking to the age of the pensioner.  The demand was formulated to rein in a logical methodology for such increases.  Our specific suggestion is to raise the quantum by5% (i.e. 65% at the age of 65) and by 5% for every five year increase in the age of pensioner.  However, the increase will have to be 10% at the age of 85 and 20% at the age of 90.
4.      Restoration of Commuted value after 10 years and gratuity as per the provisions of the Gratuity Act.      
            It is now an admitted fact that the Government recovers the full value of the commuted portion of the pension in 10 years including the interest. However, it has refused to accede to the demand for a revision of the period of restoration when it was taken up in the National Council.    There had been no reason adduced as to why this demand cannot be accepted, when the issue was subjected to discussions before the 7th CPC.  Fifteen years is too long a period and the last five years in which the pensioner is denied the full pension is without justification. We request you to kindly place this fact before the Empowering Committee for a favourable decision. In the matter of gratuity our  demand is that the Government must adhere to the provisions of the Gratuity Act and no distinction between the Government employees and the workers in the Public or private enterprises be made in the matter.
5.      Fixed Medical Allowance.
            In the case of pensioners who resides at locations not covered by the CGHS scheme has no health care benefit at all.  The serving employees are entitled for CGHS benefit  if they stay in any of the 26 cities where the CGHS facilities are available, and they enjoy the benefit of CVCS(MA) Rules  in other places. The Pensioners staying outside the CGHS areas  are to bear the health care expenses from the3oir meagre pension amount.   It is in consideration of this fact, a fixed medical allowance was introduced.  However, the quantum of such allowance is a paltry sum of  Rs. 500 p.m.  In the neo-liberalised economic system, the administered price mechanism barring in the case of a few medicines, has been dispensed with,  consequent upon which is the exorbitant prices of medicines in the market.      The pensioner is not able to afford the prices of medicines.  Either the  Government must come forward to bring in the application of CCS(MA) rules to the pensioners who are not within the ambit of CGHS or the FMA will have to be increased.  We request that the FMA may atleast be raised to Rs. 2000 per month.
6.      Grant of HRA for pensioners.
            Gone are the days when the pensioner can expect to be looked after by their children.  In most of the cases, they are unable to live with their children even if the children are willing to accommodate them.  This is because of the frequent transfer of workplace and many other relevant factors.  As has been pointed out elsewhere in this letter, the pensioners of date were the serving employees of 1970s,80s and 90s.  They did not have a decent wage structure nor could they  obtain  loan facility from the banks on nominal interest (which the people of the present contemporary society enjoys), with the result they could not venture to own a house for occupation atleast after retirement.  Throughout their service career they had been in the occupation of the Government accommodation, which they had to vacate after retirement.  The real estate business in the country witnessed a boom in 1990s and 2000s, .  The pensioners cannot compete in the real estate market either with the consumers like serving employees or business people. All these factors put together makes the pensioners to shell out a major portion of his pension income only for hiring a dwelling place.  We, therefore, request  the Committee may consider the demand for HRA  from a humanitarian point of view.         
7.      Grant of an increment prior to the date of retirement.
            Grant of one increment in the case of those pensioners who retired on completion of one year in service as on the date of superannuation had been the demand the staff side placed before the Government for their consideration in the National Council.  The demand was rejected on the technical ground that even though they had worked for a full year the grant of increment would be possible only if they are in service on the day when it become due.  The 6th CPC while recommending uniform date of increment for all Government Servants, also suggested that in the case of all employees who had completed more than six months, increment might be granted.  The issue was taken up before the 7th CPC too through our memorandum. The Commission also did not recommend the acceptance of our demand.  We therefore, appeal once again to the Government that this simple issue may be settled as it has very little coverage and the consequent financial implication is very meagre. 
                    These are some of the issues, which various pensioners organisations have brought before us  to take it up with you.  We therefore, once again request you to kindly consider these issues in the light of the justification we have appended under each of them and recommend to the Government for a positive consideration thereof.

            Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Sd/-
K.K.N. Kutty
Secretary General.

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Proposed revision of Recruitment Rules (RRs) of Higher Selection Grade - I in Savings Bank Control Organisation (HSG-I in SBCO) – regarding To view, please CLICK HERE. 

Friday, 19 February 2016

NJCA
NATIONAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION,
4, STATE ENTRY ROAD, NEW DELHI-110055


          No.NJCA/2016                                                              Dated: 19.02.2016


Dear Comrades,

Sub: Brief of the NJCA meeting held on 19.02.2016 with the
         Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance
         (Government of India), reg. 7th CPC recommendations
         and Charter of Demands of the NJCA

A meeting of the NJCA held today with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance, Shri R.K. Chaturvedi, wherein we discussed and emphasized on all the 26-point Charter of Demandsof the NJCA send to the Cabinet Secretary on 10.12.2015. 

We agitated the issues of NPS, Minimum Wage, Multiplying Factor, deduction of HRA and all other important issues.

The Convener, Implementation Cell, Shri Chaturvedi, after hearing everybody, said that, he would put-up the issues to the Cabinet Secretary, and hopefully a meeting of the JCA would be held with the Cabinet Secretary and the Empowered Committee shortly within 15 days.

Let us not leave any stone unturned for preparations of the strike.

With Best Wishes!
    

                           Convener
                 Shiva Gopal Mishra
MEETING NATIONAL  JCA WITH JOINT SECRETARY OF PAY COMMISSION IMPLEMENTATION CELL ON 19.2.2016 11.00 HOURS.

Central Civil Services (LTC) Rules, 1988 - Fulfillment of procedural requirements. (Click the link below for details)

Thursday, 18 February 2016

SUPPLEMENTARY LETTER TO THE HON`BLE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS & IT ON CBS/CIS PROBLEMS.

National Federation of Postal Employees
1st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001
Phone: 011.23092771                                                      e-mail: nfpehq@gmail.com
       Mob: 9868819295/9810853981                      website:http://www.nfpe.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No.PF-35/CBS/2016                                                                   Dated : 18th February,2016

To
            Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad
            Hon’ble Minister
            Communication & IT

Sub: Miseries and untold sufferings faced by the staff in CBS &CIS rolled out offices throughout the nation – Immediate and personal intervention requested to rein in the situation.

Respected Sir,

            In continuation of this Federation’s letter of even no. dated 20.1.2016  , we submit the following additional issues for immediate settlement in order to avoid chaos and stalemate in the service in the near future due to the hasty migration of CBS & CIS.

(i)      Whenever migration takes place, Finacle becomes abnormally slow and every single transactions take too long and the customer at the counter gets irritated and become Quarrelsome. If this lacuna is not rectified at the earliest, it is prone to invite undue displeasure of customers and endanger our customer base.

(ii)    Similarly ATM transactions are irritating the customers. In many occasions, cash is not dispensed out of APM while transactions occur and amount is debited from their account. Such scenario occurs in other banks ATM also, but reversal transactions are done within a day or two. Whereas in Finacle, it takes weeks together that too, after several mails from R.O. & C.O.

(iii)   The Finacle software being used in post offices are based on universal banking solutions and not universal Postal solutions. We have not heard about single handed banks, whereas 60% of Post office in India are now functioning in single handed status only. The SPMs of single handed offices have to work is operator ID and then come out. Again he should log on with supervisor ID for a single transaction which not only consumes a lot of time but also irritate the public who are standing in queue.

(iv)   Some of the office accounts like 339 (used for BOs) and 340 (used for issuing cheques) can be misused to fund any ones account with crores and crores of rupees as there is no maximum ceiling for our SB accounts as one date.

(v)    For example, CXFER can be used to fund one’s near and dear accounts in which teller cash will not get raised and simultaneously one can take withdrawals from other SOL (CBS offices) Kashmir to Kannyakumari as there is no cap on other SOL (Service outlet) withdrawal prescribed by the Postal department.

(vi)   It is opt to bring to your kind notice that some of the banking giants like SBI, ICICI etc. are leveraging services charges for other branch withdrawals and deposits other than through their cash vending machines like ATMs etc.

(vii)  In the case of single handed offices, both the operator and supervisor remain the same, there are chances of fraud and misappropriation of money and falsification of records. For example, a single handed SPM can take print outs at any point of time and then he can amount the same in his account by using SB CASH and thereafter he can use ‘CXFER’ to fund some one’s account in which teller cash will not get raised. It is not in practice or practicable that the SBCO officials are tallying the Finacle balance of a particular SOL (branch/office) with their S.O. account.

(viii)      Thereafter,  it is suggested that there should be a cap on other SOL withdrawals both in terms of maximum amount and number and customers who wish to use other SOL should be given a SB ID and that request should be given by them at the time of opening the accounts.

(ix)         This is the serious problem which has not been attended so far by the department that most of the deputations to single handed offices are ordered without changing the SOL ID of the deputation incumbent and Single handed SPMs are forced to giver USER ID and Password to the deputed officials in order to avail of their leave, training etc. and also to avoid unnecessary public complaint in their officers which is against the DOPT orders as there is no secrecy in passwords. This issue has not been resolved. There is every chance for the miscreants to misuse the USER ID of other in different computers and defrauding the Government money. At later stage, forgetting the smooth functioning in the absence of no arrangement, the poor innocent official will be proceeded under the contributory negligence factor. This must be set right forthwith.

(x)          Interest on loan could not be accounted in Finacle Software in the case of loan accounts in which loan amount paid off completely prior to migration period and interest on loan is still pending in the loan account in post migration period. There is scope of defrauding the funds by the fraudulent people by misusing the provision.

(xi)         In short the Postal Department is working for the vendors and not for its own. Despite ‘Sifi’  has not provided the required speed and service deteriorated, there is no penal action taken against them and the staff alone is being harassed. Some of the issues like SSA LOT are not coming in HFINRPT menu i.e the report menu and the staff are using indirect methods to get the LOT and till now the Department has not taken any efforts to get the work done from our vendor. The need for torturing the Postal officials for the benefits of vendors is best known to the Postal Department.

            The above are only the tips of ice berg. There are many more issues confronting the service and customers, have not been solved so far. The twenty issues which requires urgent attention in our earlier letter, have not yet been addressed by the Department. Whereas it is extending the migration of offices without providing necessary bandwidth, Computer peripheral etc. unless necessary peripherals are supplied and available, how can it be implanted smoothly in the Postal Department. We request the Hon’ble Minister once again to intervene in this regard.

            Further we are submitting below the problems being faced at Post offices after the migration and the solution also in a table for the immediate action by the Hon’ble Minister of communication by directly to department to settle all these issues as if fire at the top of the roof.



Description
Problem faced
Solution needed
Login Issues
1.    User Already Logged in
2.    User has exceeded three attempts. User ID is locked
Most of the time due to frequent disconnection of Internet connectivity and during the delayed process in SERVER these two issues are being faced.
(1) the user either supervisor or System Admin should use the Menu CSAC. But when Super faces same situation and if System Admin is not in a position to attend the case, CPC to be called to rectify the Issue. (which is always busy and the issue with CPC is   dealt later)
1.It is stated by INFOSYS that the SACKING the user already logged in will be reset within 5 minutes but it is not happening so. HENCE REQUESTED TO WIPE OUT THIS SCENARIO.(IN MCAMISH SOFTWARE NOSUCH ALREADY LOGGED IN ISSUE)
2.  Though there cannot be any compromise on security the unlocking facility to be given to Divisional level SPOC and System Admin.



List of Transactions SSA
There is no provision till date to view or print SSA LOT. At present we use HFTI menu (using Sub ledger 30042) to print a list of particulars of transactions alone without any Total. Users physically arrive the Total with ref to vouchers.
Menu for SSA LOT is needed.
MIS Reports

There are two servers
1.    Production Server and MIS Server. Production Server is one where the daily day transactions are stored and where the LOT for the current day alone can be taken.
2.    MIS Server is utilized for taking all reports for the older period other than the current day.
Most of the cases the MIS URL says “the page is under maintenance “

Or the BOD (day Begin is much older the Current day).  Hence the  LOTs could not be printed for the previous day
Maintenance of MIS server with the current BOD.
Training Server
The BOD of the Training Server is 26122014 and so for the training server is not reset to current date. The training is limited to certain extend and full-fledged training could not be imparted
The training server should be reset with current date by deleting all older data that have been stored over two years.



SIFY ISSUES:-
Toll free numbers
The issues faced like network down, Modem Failure, Tower issues, we used to call Toll Free number. Now the same cannot be used as the AGREEMENT Period is over. In case of any issues with sify we have to send a email/lodge a complaint in SIFY PORTAL which may not be  possible as network is down.
Requested to restore TOLL FREE NUMBERS.
Monitoring by SIFY
During the initial period the important locations (WEGs) where monitored by SIFY. In case of any downs in primary (BSNL) or secondary (sify)link  SUO MOTTO action was taken by sify .
Now the monitoring is not done by SIFY. The PO should send a email/ use the web portal to lodge a complaint
SIFY should monitor the functioning / Down condition of sites and should take SUO MOTTO action.
Bandwidth
The minimum bandwidth is 128kbps (NSP II) and maximum is 256 kbps for C and B class offices.
256 and 512 for other class other than HOs .
Except HOs all other smaller units are suffering due to low bandwidth.
To be enhanced to 512 at C and B class level.
To be enhanced up to 1 MBPS for units for rest of the units other than HPOs.
Supply of BIO METRIC devices.
To enhance more security
Cutoff date for updating
Past premium postings introduced in Mc Camish.
PLI dte. lr. Dt.9.2.16 says that .csv files will no longer be available after 15.03.2016, while BOs are allowed to
accept premiums and there is large no. of non migration exists.
No cutoff date should be fixed, till 100% migration ofNIC data to 'CIS' is confirmed. Migrations were made in a hasty manner, to satisfy the higher officers, resulting in heavy non postings. Further, BOs are permitted to accept premiums anywhere, which could not be posted again, if cutoff date is fixed. Despite of these, if cutoff date is fixed, responsibility will be fixed on poor ground level officials for wrong/ short payments.
           
            Once again we request your honour to kindly intervene and save the Postal service by stopping the speedy migration. We are not against modernization. CBS & CIS we are praying that all the loopholes, problems in the existing software be rectified and let it be user friendly before the expansion of CBS. All the issues narrated above may please be considered and attended.

            With profound regards,
Yours sincerely,

(R. N. Parashar)

Copy to: The Secretary (Posts) Dak Bhawan, New Delhi         Secretary General.