NCCPA CIRCULAR

NATIONAL CO-ORINATION COMMITTEE

OF PENSIONERS ASSOCIATIONS.

13/c  Feroze shah  Road,

 New Delhi. 110 001

Dated: 30.5.2016

Website: www.nccpahq.blogspot.com

Email. nccpahq@gmail.com

Dear Comrades,

                We send herewith a copy of the NJCA Circular letter dated 27^th May, 2016.  The same is self-explanatory.  You could see there-from that the Government might not positively react to the demands placed by the NJCA over the recommendations of the 7^th CPC.  Simply raising the minimum wage by a few rupees without any consequential change in the fitment formula or pay matrix will not bring about any tangible benefit. The revision of the minimum wage along would benefit only those who are likely to be recruited to the cadre of MTS in future.  As you are aware, the 7^th CPC had not accepted any demand of the employees.  It is beset with dissenting notes in many chapters.  The fight between the personnel in the organized Group A Services and all India Services had triggered such dissenting note on the part of the Member who retired from the IAS.  A significant section of the Secretaries to various Departments, we were told, were against any revision over the recommendations of the 7^th CPC.  In any case, we are to await the outcome of the discussions at the NJCA meeting scheduled to be held on 3^rd June, at New Delhi.

                 Coming to the issues pertaining to the Pensioners, we must recall that the 7^th CPC had rejected almost all the demands unanimously placed before them by the Pensioners organizations. While tendering oral evidence the Staff Side had inter alia pressed for the parity for the past pensioners before the Commission, especially in the background of the granting of one rank one pension to the Defence Personnel.  It is ironic to note that the Defence Ministry which had piloted the demand of the Ex-service men for one rank one pension i.e. parity between the past and present pensioners has now taken a stand against such parity for civil servants.  No personnel either in the organized Group A services or All India Services would stand benefited by the present recommendation of the 7^th CPC except a few as most of them were in receipt of almost time bound promotion in their career.  The modified parity one must recall has only benefited the upper echelons in the bureaucracy.  One can understand that the Govt. refusing to make improvements over the suggestion made by a Commission.  But it must be most intolerable when the Govt. refuses to implement a recommendation which was the outcome of a persistent presentation jointly by almost all the beneficiaries.  The plea advanced for non acceptance of the recommendation is the alleged impracticability due to the non availability of the relevant records.  Should the pensioner suffer for the reason that the concerned department of the Government has not kept the records properly? It is the most callous approach and must be resisted with all the force that we can command. We cannot afford to have this situation to develop. We are certain that most of the individual pensioners would be able to provide the requisite information needed to consider the first option in the pension fixation to the concerned department and most of the Departments would be able to verify the same with the available documents with them.  We must however await the decision of the NJCA in the matter.

                In the meantime, all affiliates will take such action needed to mobilize the pensioners and undertake a serious educational campaign.

                With greetings,

Yours fraternally,

KKN.Kutty.

Secretary General. 

Copy of National Joint Council of Action circular letter dated 27.5.2016

LATEST DEVELOPMENT ON 7th CPC RECOMMENDATIONS 

The Competent Authority  issued  tenure transfer memo of PA/SBCO South Bengal  Region for the year 2016.

A “WhatsApp” massage received from Com. Virendra Tewary, GS, AIPSBCOEA regarding  Cadre Restructuring of SBCO / Circle Office  & RMS employees share with you.

Dear Comrades & Colleagues, The order regarding Cadre Restructuring for only P-3 officials of Postal side was issued by the Department on 27^th May’2016. However, we all know that this is the violation of our Agreement which signed by the Department & the Federation. I have discussed that matter with Secretary General of Confederation, Com. Krishnan & Secretary General of NFPE, Com. Parashar. We are keeping a close watch on this issue & we will visit the Directorate very soon. I urge you all our efforts will bear fruit & we will win this battle even against all odds because we have weapon that shook the foundation of even the most empowered Empire of all them which is Inqlab. Inqlab Zindabad.

Virendra Tewary

General Secretary

AIPSBCOEA (CHQ )

Cadre Restructuring of Group 'C' employees order issued by Department of Posts  on 27.05.2016. It is hope Cadre Restructuring of SBCO / Circle Office  & RMS employees will be issued very soon separately.

Cadre Restructuring of Group 'C' employees in Department of Posts

Issues of DoP Finacle - An unofficial chat with Infosys official working in Finacle Team.

Issues of DoP Finacle - An unofficial chat with Infosys official working in Finacle Team.

Change of Role of SBCO in the backdrop of implementation of CBS (Addendum SB order 14/2015)

Change of Role of SBCO in the backdrop of implementation of CBS (Addendum SB order 14/2015)

The competent authority has reviewed the Annexure attached to the SB Order No.14/2015 and decided to replace point 5.1 of the Annexure from the date of receipt of this order. Content of point 5.1 shall be as under:- 

5.1 Examination of scheme-wise consolidation received from HO and SOs, Checking of entries in LOTs viewed from Finacle MIS server and checking the daily/ progressive totals in the Cash Book. 

5.1.1 SBCO PA 

• The designated Postal Assistant SBCO will receive Scheme-wise sealed and stitched Voucher Bundles with Consolidation placed at the top from Sub Account PA. He will generate fresh consolidation of each scheme from Finacle production server (HFINRPT) and compare the print out received from SOs with the system generated consolidation. Both the consolidations should be tallied with SO Daily Account and SO Summary. Bundle of HO will be received from APM(SB) of HO Counter and amount shown in the consolidation should also be tallied with the fresh consolidation generated from Finacle production server (HFINRPT) and HO Summary If there is any discrepancy in both consolidations or with SO Daily Account/Summary and the same is not supported by copy of error book or special report, it should immediately report to Incharge SBCO. All Voucher Bundles of each scheme will be handed over to Incharge SBCO. 

5.1.2 SBCO Incharge 

• SBCO Incharge will examine the voucher bundles and verify that the Scheme- wise Consolidation bears signatures and designation stamp of the Supervisor (APM)/Sub Postmaster and number of vouchers written on the consolidation are tallied with number of vouchers attached with the bundle. He will countersign each consolidation and mark to concerned SBCO PA as per workload and availability of staff. In case of any shortcoming, he will write objection and send copy of objection to the Postmaster. Incharge SBCO will send immediate report on the difference in consolidation sent by SO or HO and consolidation generated from system by SBCO PA as well as SO Daily Account and SO/HO Summary to Postmaster, Divisional Head and Vigilance Branch of Regional/Circle Office. 

UJJAIN CHALO!                              UJJAIN CHALO!

 

NOTICE FOR CENTRAL WORKING COMMITTEE MEETING WILL BE HELD AT UJJAIN (M.P. CIRCLE)

ON 3rd & 4th JULY, 2016

India Post Payments Bank Will Be Functional By March 17: IT Minister

He said the proposed India Post payments bank will have immense potential to sell third party product and services.

Hyderabad: India Post's payments bank will start functioning from March 2017 and serve as a wider platform to implement financial inclusion programmes, IT & Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Sunday.

"We are going to start the postal payments bank by March 2017. Very soon we will go to the Cabinet and postal payments bank will become operational from March 2017," Prasad told reporters here.

He said the proposed India Post payments bank will have immense potential to sell third party product and services. About 50 companies, including some from abroad, are keen to partner with postal department for the payments bank, like World Bank, Citi from America, Barclay's from England, he said.

Reacting to a query, he said these institutions will offer third party services like insurance products, mutual funds, banking instruments and a variety of financial instruments. Asked on the interest shown by these institutions, the minister said, "...that board will decide, I'm only saying value addition of postal department it is attracting so much global attention." "...they will decide how much to give them. It is a call they will take," he said.

The payments bank of postal department will become a big platform of financial inclusion, Prasad said. "We are going to invest about Rs 800 crore -- Rs 400 crore will be invested by  the department and the remaining amount will be equity part (mobilised as equity)," he said.

"Postal department has the widest network in India. We have 1,54,939 post offices in the country, out of that 25,560 are departmental post offices and 1,29,379 are branch post offices," he said.

"Under (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi, we have decided to re-energise the postal department for India's growth and financial inclusion," he further said. In August 2015, the RBI had given in-principle approval to 11 entities to start payments bank, including the postal department.

The approval is valid for 18 months and all the entities are required to submit a detailed business plan after which they shall be given the final nod.

Rs. 800 cr. for Postal Payments Bank

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad has stated that the Centre would invest Rs.800 crore in the proposed India Post payments bank, which is expected to become operational by March next. Half of it would be from the Department of Posts/Centre and the remaining would be equity.

RBI clearance

An additional Rs.400 crore would be mobilised as equity for the payments bank, to which the Reserve Bank of India had already given clearance, the Minister said here on Sunday while speaking on the sidelines of the three-day annual conference of heads of circles of the Department of Posts.

The payments bank would also offer third-party services of about 50 Indian and overseas financial institutions including insurance products, mutual funds, banking instruments and debt-equity and the board of the bank would decide the modalities of extending such services. “World Bank, Citi Bank, Deutsch Bank, Barclays and several others have already expressed their intent to partner with the India Post payments bank”, the Minister said.

Financial inclusion

Stating that payments bank would become a big platform for financial inclusion in the country, the Union Minister said performance of the Department of Posts had improved considerably during the last two years. He pointed out that from 2 per cent negative growth in revenue from parcel service as part of e-commerce in 2013-14, it went up by 45 per in 2014-15 and by 81 per cent in 2015-16.

The CAG had termed India Post speed post service best courier service in the country and its revenue was up by 8 per cent during 2015-16 compared to the previous year. With 1,54,939 post offices across the country, including 1,29,379 in rural areas, the Department of Posts had played a key role in financial inclusion by having 85.28 lakh accounts with a deposit of over Rs.4,500 crore in Sukanya Samriddhi accounts against just 4 lakh accounts achieved by all other banks put together, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

As part of digitisation and technological up-gradation, the department would soon introduce hand-held devices to 1.3 lakh rural postal staff for speedy and efficient banking, insurance and delivery services.

The Minister said 4,000 devices were already being used on pilot basis in six States including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

World Bank, Citi Bank, ready to partner with India Post: Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Source : http://www.thehindu.com

President conveys his appreciation and admiration for India’s unparalleled postal network.

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India held a meeting with Shri Ravishankar Prasad, Minister for Communications and IT at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 20th May 2016, in which the central topic of discussion was the ongoing transformation of the postal network. The President enquired about the modernisation project, and was happy to learn about how the induction of IT was making service delivery at post offices contemporary. He also used the occasion to convey his fondness and admiration for the postal network to the postal staff, through the Minister.

File photo of President Mukherjee with Minister Prasad at a stamp release function in October 2014. Courtesy:www.prokerala.com Details of this interaction with the President were revealed by Shri Prasad himself, during his keynote address on 22nd May 2016, at the Conference of the Heads of Postal Circles at Hyderabad. There have been a few other occasions in the past also when the Department has had the opportunity to benefit from President Mukherjee words of guidance and came in for praise from him. While inaugurating an international postal event at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan in 2013, he had commended the unparalleled network of the Post Office and advised that there is a huge scope for postal services to be engaged in e-commerce, and that it should capitallise on the rising demand for such business products. On that occasion, he had also highlighted the need to move with the times, and said that globalization and easier movement of workforce across nations have opened a great window of opportunity for the postal sector in parcel and money remittance businesses. Further, he had emphasised that worldwide, postal administrations enjoy the trust of people and advised that the Post Office must leverage this and other strengths to provide improved quality of service to the people.

Inauguration of the new building of the Rashtrapati Bhavan PO  in July 2014. Photo courtesy: Exposeindialive.com

 It is no surprise then that hearing from the Minister about developments like the networking of post offices, postal savings coming on a CBS platform and the Post Office preparing to set up a Payments Bank would have been a matter of satisfaction for him. His sending a message a message to the postal staff through the Minister is a rare gesture, which is sure to inspire them to higher standards of service delivery.

The words of appreciation from the President represent the increasing significance of the Postal network in the national mainstream and in public perception. With it also comes a higher responsibility for the management and staff of India Post, the responsibility of living up to the expectations of the country’s First Citizen.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to proposed India Post Payments Bank (Click the link below to view)

http://utilities.cept.gov.in/dop/pdfbind.ashx?id=1931

GOOD NEWS

It has been informed by Shri Ashutosh Tripathi, Member(P), Postal Services Board , Department of Posts that Cadre Restructuring Proposal which was agreed and finalized by the Department of Posts  after several  rounds of discussions with Unions has been  approved by the Finance Ministry and it  will be implemented soon.         This is one of the great achievements of Unions as this has been done for the first time in Postal Department. (R.N. Prashar) Secretary General

To seek Cabinet nod for India Post payment bank this month:

Ravi Shankar Prasad

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has moved a Cabinet note on India Post’s payment bank proposal and is likely to seek the approval of the Union Cabinet this month. India Post’s payment bank is slated for a March 2017 launch.

“The postal department’s payment bank will be a game changer for financial inclusion. Several international and national consortiums for third party services are keen to partner with us. Deutsche Bank, Citi Bank, Barclays, Templeton and all the banks of India and all mutual funds and insurance companies, except LIC, for third party delivery, are willing to partner,” Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad told The Indian Express.

The domestic players in the fray for partnering India Post include NABARD, HSBC, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Life Insurance, HDFC, PNB Metlife, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Prudential, and Bajaj Allianz, while the international ones, apart from Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Citi and Templeton, include Transport USA for renting solutions, Western Union, ClearSecurity and Japan’s Hitachi.

These companies have approached the postal department for partnering on banking products, banking solutions, consultancy, banking correspondents, physical security products, ATMs and digital payment services. In August 2015, the Reserve Bank of India had granted in-principle approval to 11 applicants to set up payments banks, including India Post.

On Wednesday, the officials of the postal department apprised Prasad of the situation on its payment bank. As a prerequisite, Prasad said: “I have noted that the personnel must be properly trained to use the infrastructure,” he said. He also said that the India Post was in process of modernising its infrastructure to suit the growing needs of its customers. He informed that the department had 913 automated teller machines (ATMs) currently, against only four in 2014.

As of date, Prasad said, 20,644 post offices were enabled with core-banking solutions (CBS), against 230 as of June 2014. CBS-enabled post offices allow customers to access their postal savings from any of the branches where the facility is available.

Implementation of CBS is part of the government’s plan for IT Modernisation Project of the Department of Posts, which aims to bring in various IT solutions with the required infrastructure to the post offices.

Source : http://indianexpress.com

PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN TO PREVENT FRAUDS AFTER IMPLEMENTATION OF CBS.

AIPSBCOEA (CHQ) - BULLETIN NO. 6

NEED BASED MINIMUM WAGE STILL APPEARS A DREAM FOR WORKING CLASS EVEN AFTER 68 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE OF INDIA – NO COMPROMISE ON RETROGRADE REPORT OF 7th CPC, STAND FOR STRUGGLE KEEP HIGHER

Confrontation will become inevitable if unilateral orders are issued on 7th CPC implementation: Confederation

It seems that Modi Govt. is not in favour of a negotiated settlement on the 7th CPC related issues with the staff side. The Seventh CPC report was submitted on 19th November 2015. Six months are almost over since then. Till date the Govt. has not come forward for a negotiated settlement. Instead, Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary conducted a meeting with the staff side on 1st March 2016. In the meeting Govt. did not disclose its mind on any of the demands raised by the staff side in the charter of demands submitted to Govt. Staff side explained the justification for each demand but official side didn’t make any comment, either positive or negative. The concluding paragraph of the minutes of the meeting reads as follows:

“After hearing the participants, Cabinet Secretary observed that the deliberations have helped ECoS in understanding the major concerns of the staff side and said that all issues have been taken note of. He assured that fair consideration will be given to all points brought out by JCM before taking final views. He further stated that the ECoS needs to examine the Report of the Commission in entirety as well as the issues raised by JCM in consultation with all other stake holders. As such, it may take some time to take a final call on the recommendations of the Commission.”

It may be seen that, neither did the Govt. side made any commitment on any demands, nor did they indicate in the minutes that further discussion will be held with the staff side to arrive at a negotiated settlement on each demands. It seems that the Modi Govt is moving ahead to issue unilateral orders taking the staff side for a ride.

The JCM staff side Secretary, in his letter dated 2nd May 2016, addressed to Cabinet Secretary, has made the stand of the staff side clear, without any ambiguity. The letter reads as follows:

“I have been directed to draw your attention towards minutes of the Standing Committee of National Council JCM held on 7th May 2008 and our rejoinder submitted to Govt. in the matter of Report of 6th CPC.

You will kindly find that it was not only a general discussion, but also official side explained their views on each and every issue.

I would therefore request your good self to kindly arrange for similar type of meeting for bi-lateral settlement on each of the issues raised by the staff side, NC/JCM before the Empowered Committee of Secretaries.”

Thus the picture is clear now. The Govt, it seems, has a hidden agenda to take the staff side for granted without giving any further opportunity for a negotiated settlement. The staff side on the other hand has taken a position that if unilateral orders are issued, without taking the staff side into confidence, the NJCA shall go ahead with the indefinite strike from 11th July 2016 as already informed to the Govt. Employees have faith in the NJCA and they believe that the NJCA leadership shall assert itself and shall not compromise on major demands.

The coming days are crucial. If the Govt. adopts delaying tactics or issue unilateral orders rejecting our demands, then confrontation shall become inevitable. The stand taken by the then Nehru Govt. that “Pay Commission report is an award and is not negotiable” has resulted in the historic indefinite strike of 1960, which commenced on July 11th midnight.

The NJCA leadership should be ready for a showdown, if Modi Govt refuse to arrive at a negotiated settlement with the staff side as demanded by Secretary, JCM(NC) staff side.

 

M KRISHNAN

Secretary General

Confederation