“Forward ever, backward never: onwards with Breaking Through”


7th Pay Commission Chairman, Justice Shri A. K. Mathur, proposes to visit Mumbai from 6th November, 2014 to 8th November, 2014
The commission has, in its first phase of interaction, been seeking the views of various stakeholders on its terms of reference. To this end, meetings have been held in Delhi with various organisations and heads of various agencies.
In its second phase of interaction, the Commission has started holding meetings in different parts of the country to facilitate stakeholders staying in various areas to present their views personally before the Commission and ensure larger representation. This exercise is being undertaken to enable the Commission to get a first-hand impression about the functioning and the condition of service prevailing in different parts of the country.
7th Pay Commission’s visit to Mumbai
Accordingly, the Commission, headed by its Chairman, Justice Shri A. K. Mathur, proposes to visit Mumbai from 6th November, 2014 to 8th November, 2014. The Commission would like to invite various entities/associations/federations representing any/all categories of employees covered by the terms of Reference of the Commission to present their views.
Your request for a meeting with the Commission may be sent through e-mail to the Secretary, 7th Central Pay Commission at secy-7cpc@nic.in. The memorandum already submitted by the requesting entity may also be sent as an attachment with this e-mail.
The last date for receiving request for meeting is 30th October, 2014 (1700 hours).

21/10/2014
Govt plans weekly training for all its employees.
FLASH NEWS.
20/10/2014.
Procurement of bags & Plastic seals 
.Click here to see the order.


18/10/2014

India Post to play an important role in online shopping now.


The machine installed on latest 'Automated Mail Processor Center' was also displayed 


Keeping in view the enormous growth of the e-commerce sector in the country in recent years, India Post has recently joined hands with the e-retail  giants Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon. India Postal Department will soon be delivering products of these online companies in every corner of the nation in the near future. 
The prospects of collaboration were discussed in a press conference held on Saturday on the occasion of 'mail diwas' during 'National Postal Week'. The machine installed on latest 'Automated Mail Processor Center' was also displayed. 
John Samuel, Member of the Postal Service Board informed that the Indian Post will soon convert 1.55 lakh post offices of the country to the high-tec 'Parcel hubs' and  an investment of Rs 4.90 crore  is being pitched for this plan. 
“India Post will play a major role in e-commerce industry and would be using latest machines. It would be transforming according to the needs of the world,” he further added. 
Chief Post Master General Vashumitra stressed that automated mail processing centre built at IGI airport, is important for the modernisation of India Post. He also shared that letter sorting machine, mixed mail sorter machines installed in the centre work quickly. The letters and parcels are sorted out as per the different states and different areas (as per Pincodes). 
33,000 letters per hour can be sorted by this machine. He urged the customers as well to write the addresses and pincodes on the letters and parcels correctly , avoid using coloured envelopes, so that there may be no problems in sorting of the letters and parcels. 


17/10/2014
Modeled on the lines of Jharkhand government’s attendance website, it has a dashboard which gives an overview of daily attendance activity of every employee registered with it, and will very soon become a centralised database of and for all central government employees.

40% of registered central government employees absent from work – attendance.gov.in
Blame it on Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu. He made a couple of surprise visits to his ministry in June and July and a government attendance website was launched, which is throwing up stunning figures of attendance in central government offices. If attendance.gov.in is to be believed, nearly 40% of central government employees tend to be absent from work on any single working day of the week. Attendance.gov.in is a live website and tracks attendance minute by minute
For example, on Friday, October 10, of 50,587 central government employees registered with attendance.gov.in, the recently launched “attendance website” by the Modi government, only 27,553 were present. The remaining 22,000 odd employees had not turned up for work for whatever reason.
The story of this bureaucratic-lethargy started when, soon after taking charge of the Urban development ministry, Naidu checked into Nirman Bhavan, once on June 12, and then on July 28. “That is when late coming to office was noticed. Shri Naidu then directed ministry officials to take necessary measures to ensure punctuality at work,” says a PIB note issued on August 13.
Very soon biometric attendance marker systems were installed in Nirman Bhavan. Other ministries followed suit, and the ‘Babu’ was forced to answer to an electronic roll-call, mornings and evenings. Attendance.gov.in was simultaneously launched. It took some days but now the website is in full flow, and throwing up numbers that tell the story in numbers.
Modelled on the lines of Jharkhand government’s attendance website, it has a dashboard which gives an overview of daily attendance activity of every employee registered with it, and will very soon become a centralised database of and for all central government employees.
The numbers on attendance.gov.in show that the biometric attendance system has so far not done much to change Babu-behaviour. Playing truant continues though “late coming to office” might have stopped to an extent.
The figures are graphic on attendance.gov.in. Bureaucratic-lethargy is seen across the board, cutting across ministries and departments. For instance, in Naidu’s ministry of urban development (MOUD), where it all started, 345 employees were present on Friday, out of a total of 463 biometric-registered employees.
Other departments did not depart from the script. Out of the 1006 self-registered and department-verified employees of the department of rural development, only 429 marked attendance on Friday. In the case of ministry of water resources, the numbers were 1034 and 439. Directorate general of supplies and disposals (DGS&D): 1143 and 409. Department of Science: 351/889. The total at all these four departments: 3487/9846.
In CPWD, which too is governed by the MOUD, of the 6444 registered employees, on 754 were on attendance on Friday. Contacted by dna, CPWD’s nodal officer for biometric attendance, K C Singh, said, “I am not competent to speak on this issue.” He was dead serious. A call to the Ministry of Finance elicited a somewhat similar reply. The person who answered the call said, “Please call on Monday. I do not know the name of the nodal officer.”
As of Friday, 149 government organisations & departments had registered with this unique attendance website. More are expected to sign in. The ubiquitous Babu is finally under the scanner, and unwilling to talk of the experience. Attendance.gov.in is doing all the talking.
source : DNAINDIA.COM.

PFRDA will approach FM seeking tax exemption for NPS withdrawals

Pension regulator PFRDA will soon approach Finance Ministry seeking tax exemption for withdrawals under the National Pension System (NPS), its Chairman Hemant G Contractor has said.
This will be the first time PFRDA– after getting statutory recognition in February 2014– will seek a tax break for NPS.
The Finance Ministry will soon start the budget preparation exercise for Budget 2015-16, which will be the first comprehensive budget of the new Modi-Government.
Prior to the statutory recognition, the interim pension regulator had sought tax exemption on NPS withdrawals, but that tax break was not provided by the erstwhile UPA Government.
In his first interaction with mediapersons here on Wednesday, the new PFRDA Chairman, Contractor said there was need for some “fiscal” push from the Government to make NPS popular in the country.
A tax exemption on NPS withdrawals would address the “adequacy” aspect of retirement monies and ensure that taxes don’t eat into the retirement corpus of a subscriber.
Under the current income tax law, there is no tax incidence on contribution or accumulation phase, but tax would be levied at the withdrawal stage
A tax exemption on NPS withdrawals would level the playing field with products such as provident funds.
The direct taxes code proposed by the UPA regime had suggested that ‘Exempt-Exempt-Exempt’ regime be adopted for financial savings products like NPS.
Indications are that the new dispensation at the Centre will look to bring its own version of new income-tax law.
SWAVALAMBAN
PFRDA Chairman Contractor said the Swavalamban scheme has been made an integral part of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the flagship financial programme of the Modi-led Government.
PFRDA has fixed a target of fifty five lakhs subscribers of Swavalamban under PMJDY.
This target of fifty five lakhs subscribers has been allocated to all the banks working as aggregators. Targets have also been allocated to other categories of aggregators.



FLASH NEWS

16/10/2014

Suggestions are invited on utilization of deposits remained unclaimed with Post Office and Banks


GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
NATIONAL SAVINGS INSTITUTE
F.No 6504/94 (6)/2014/Comm
October 8, 2014
PUBLIC NOTICE
A committee has been constituted by Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India to examine the unclaimed amount remained in various small savings schemes viz. Public Provident Fund, Senior Citizen Saving Schemes etc. and also to recommend how this unclaimed amount can be used to protect and further financial interest of the senior citizens, vide notification No. 13/20/2014.NS.II dated 03.09.2014. A copy of the notification Is available on our website finmin.nic.in and http:nsiindia.gov.in
Suggestions /ideas are invited on the proper utilization of deposits Remained unclaimed in various Small Savings Schemes with Post Offices and Banks for welfare and protecting financial interest of senior Citizens
Interested persons/organizations may submit their suggestions/ideas to the Joint Director National Savings Institute, Govt. of India. Ministry of Finance, ‘A’ Block, 4th Floor, CGO Complex, Seminary Hills, Nagpur — 440006 or email : nsi@nsiindia.gov.in latest by 15 November20141

Sd/-

(A. K.Chauhan)
joint Director, NSI &
Member – Secretary





No proposal to bring bank employees under the purview of the pay commission -IBA
Even after several rounds of talks between bank employee unions and the Indian Banks Association (IBA), there seems to be no consensus on the quantum of salary hike for over 800,000 employees at different public sector lenders.
While the IBA has indicated that the maximum hike that can be offered to employees is about 11%, unions are demanding a 25% raise.
With the stalemate still continuing, sources said a proposal could also be considered to bring them under the purview of the Seventh Pay Commission, which has already been constituted. A large section of bank employees are, however, unwilling to do the same.



No-proposal-to-bring-bank-employees-under-the-purview-of-the-pay-commission–IBA
“There needs to be an end to the stalemate and this is an option that has also come up,” an official source who refused to be identified said.
IBA chairman, TM Bhasin, however, told HT that there was no proposal to bring bank employees under the purview of the pay commission. “IBA has no such consideration and no proposal has come to the IBA,” he said.
“There have been some reports of bringing the bank employees under the purview of the pay commission but we are completely opposed to such a move,” said CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association.
The salary revision of bank employees is due since November 2012.
Unions meanwhile have threatened to go on a strike on November 12. There could even be an indefinite strike thereafter if the issue is not addressed, union representatives said.
A senior bank executive said the issue of wage settlement would have to be sorted at the earliest and the finance ministry could intervene to ensure that the deadlock comes to an end.
“At a time, when the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is underway and targets have to be met, there is little scope to lose time,” he said.

Source : Hindustan Times


Pay Commission team visits Siachen to get first-hand experience.





The Pay Commission team during the visit.The 7th Pay Commission visited forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir, including the world's highest battlefield on the Siachen glacier, to get the first-hand feel of the freezing temperatures and hardship faced by soldiers.
The 16-member team headed by the panel's chairman, retired judge A.K. Mathur, spent time at the base camp in Siachen and went to other forward areas. The three services have submitted a joint memorandum to the Pay Commission regarding their "wish list". The panel will visit other defence installations as it continues its deliberations till January 1, 2016.
The panel spent considerable time at the Siachen base camp, interacting with soldiers and asking them about the conditions in one of the toughest areas of the world. They were also flown over the glacier and landed at a forward post. The soldiers work under extreme climatic conditions where the weather is a constant enemy. The soldiers shared their experience and talked about the harsh climatic condition they face on the line of duty. The punishing weather does not allow a person to spend more than a week at the glacier and the forward posts, they told the panel.
The panel members also witnessed ice craft and mountaineering training being carried out at the Siachen Battle School.
The Pay Commission team also landed at the advanced landing ground at Daulat Beg Oldie on the border with China. It is the world's highest landing strip and air operations in the rarefied high altitude air are a challenge.
During their visits to the forward areas, the delegation laid floral wreaths at the Siachen War Memorial, Kargil War Memorial and the Rezangla War Memorial while paying tributes to our martyrs, a defence PRO said.
At the Line of Actual Control, the Pay Commission members interacted with personnel from the Indian Air Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
Officials said the panel will have to consider the unique situation faced by the jawans, who are exposed to severe medical conditions because of the inhospitable environment. "The climate does not suit human habitation but the army jawans are positioned in the area manning the territory all through the year," an official said.
This is only the first round of interaction and more inputs would be sought by the team in the coming months.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the All Ladakh Central Government Employees (ALCGE), which comprises staff of Doordarshan, High Altitude Research Centre, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Institute of Buddhist Studies and Air Force Authority of India, met Justice Mathur's team.







15/10/2014

Grant of paid holiday to employees on the day of poll – Haryana Govt Orders Issued
October 14, 2014 by
The Chief Secretary of Haryana Government has published orders on granting of paid holiday to employees on the day of poll and attached the latest orders reveiced from Election Commission of India regarding this subject as follows…
Ceneral Election Vidhan Sabha, 2014
Most Immediate Date Bound
No 4/36/2009-1 Election

Government of Haryana
Chief Secretary Office
(Election Branch)
Dated, Chandigarh, the 30th September, 2014
To
The Chiet Secretary to Govt., Haryana,
General Adminisuation Department
(in OS-JI Branch).
Subject: – General Elections to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, 2014 – Grant of paid holiday to employees on the day of poll – reg.
Sir/Madam,
I am directed to refer to the subject noted above and to enclose a copy of letter No.78/2014/EPS/717, dated 24.09.2014 received from Sh. Sumit Mukherjee, Secretary, Election Commission of India,, Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi for immediate appropriate action.  It is requested that suitable instructions may be issued to all concerned and a copy thereof be endorsed to the Election Commission of india for information and record under intimation to this Department.
Yours faithfully,
sd/-
Superintendent Election.


RRB to Allow candidates to take away the Question Booklets after written examination
RRCB No.03/2014
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(RAILWAY BOARD)
No. E(RRB)12004/25/14
New Delhi. Dt 09.10.2014
The Chairpersons.
Alt Railway Recruitment Boards.
Sub.: Allowing candidates to take away the Question Booklets after written examination.
Ref : Boards letter No.E(RRB)/2004/25/14 dt 03.05.2005
(RRCBN0.07/2005).
The issue of allowing candidates to take away the Question Booklets after written examination has been under consideration of Board for a long time. Some of the Chairperson/RRBs have brought o the notice of Board that they are facing constraints of space for storage/handling of the question booklets, Besides, there is regular demand from the candidates to provide the copy of their question booklets through RTIs which adds up to their workload also. Therefore it was suggested that the candidates appearing for RRB examinations may also be allowed to take away their question booklets after the written examination Like in other recruitment agencies.
In view of above matter has been deliberated upon by the Board and in supersession of Board s letter under reference above it has been decided that the candidates appearing for RRB examinations may be allowed to take away their question booklets after the completion of written examination. However, the following safeguards need to be ensured.
1.The candidate(s) should be allowed to leave the examination hall on/ after the conclusion of written examination.
2. The year of examination and exam code only be printed on each page of the question booklet on the top right corner to avoid its misuse. if any, in future.
3. A carbon less duplicate top sheet / covering page should be introduced n the question booklet. The first and original top sheet be separated by the invigilator after being filled in and duly signed. These collected original tap sheets should be returned to RRB through Officer In charge.
4. These instructions shalt be effective foc all the RRB examinations against CEN 02/2014 and onwards
Sd/-