IMPORTANT NEWS align=center

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Declaration of Assets and Liabilities by Public servants under section 44 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 - extension of last date for filing of revised returns by public servants



CAN’T RECOVER EXCESS SALARY PAID TO CLASS III, IV STAFF
SUPREME COURT
Press News by TOI

NEW DELHI: Recovery of excess amount paid to Class-III and Class-IV employees due to employer's mistake is not permissible in law, the Supreme Court has ruled saying that it would cause extremely harsh consequences to them who are totally dependent on their wages to run their family.

The apex court said employees of lower rung service spend their entire earning in the upkeep and welfare of their family, and if such excess payment is allowed to be recovered from them, it would cause them far more hardship, than the reciprocal gains to the employer.

A bench of JS Khehar and Arun Mishra also directed that an employer cannot recover excess amount in case of a retired employee or one who is to retire within one year and where recovery process is initiated five years after excess payment.

"We are therefore satisfied in concluding, that such recovery from employees belonging to the lower rungs (i.e., Class-III and Class-IV - sometimes denoted as Group 'C' and Group 'D') of service, should not be subjected to the ordeal of any recovery, even though they were beneficiaries of receiving higher emoluments, than were due to them. Such recovery would be iniquitous and arbitrary and therefore would also breach the mandate contained in Article 14 of the Constitution," Justice Khehar, who wrote the judgment said.

It said that the employer's right to recover has to compared, with the effect of the recovery on the concerned employee and if the effect of the recovery from the employee would be, more unfair, more wrongful, more improper, and more unwarranted, than the corresponding right of the employer, which would then make it iniquitous and arbitrary, to effect the recovery.

"In such a situation, the employee's right would outbalance, and therefore eclipse, the right of the employer to recover," the bench said.

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by Punjab government challenging Punjab and Haryana high court order restraining it to recover the excess amount paid by mistake to numerous employees over the years.

It said we may, as a ready reference, summarize the following few situations, wherein recoveries by the employers, would be impermissible in law:

(i) Recovery from employees belonging to Class-III and Class-IV service (or Group 'C' and Group 'D' service).

(ii) Recovery from retired employees, or employees who are due to retire within one year, of the order of recovery.

(iii) Recovery from employees, when the excess payment has been made for a period in excess of five years, before the order of recovery is issued.

(iv) Recovery in cases where an employee has wrongfully been required to discharge duties of a higher post, and has been paid accordingly, even though he should have rightfully been required to work against an inferior post.

(v) In any other case, where the Court arrives at the conclusion, that recovery if made from the employee, would be iniquitous or harsh or arbitrary to such an extent, as would far outweigh the equitable balance of the employer's right to recover.

The court said a government employee is primarily dependent on his wages, and such deduction from salary should not be allowed which would make it difficult for the employee to provide for the needs of his family and any recovery must be done within five years.


In this case, the employees were given monetary benefits in excess of their entitlement due to a mistake committed by a concerned competent authority, in determining the emoluments payable to them.

Thursday 18 December 2014

Min of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

NO REDUCTION IN RETIREMENT AGE

          There is no proposal under consideration of Government to reduce the retirement age from 60 to 58 years for its employees.
          The retirement age for Central Government employees was revised from 58 to 60 years in 1997 on the basis of recommendations of the 5th Central Pay Commission.
        The Centre’s total wages and salaries bill for its employees for the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 is Rs. 85,963.50 crore, Rs. 92,264.88 crore and Rs. 1,04,759.71 crore, respectively.
        This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Dr. T Subbarami Reddy and Smt. Ambika Soni in Rajya Sabha, today. 
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KSD/PK/BK/RS
(ReleaseID:113622) 18.12.2014

Tuesday 16 December 2014

SALARY NOW CAN BE PAID IN CASH ALSO - DOP ISSUED ORDER

Interim Report of 7th Central Pay Commission – Official announcement of Finmin


GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
                                                               MINISTRY OF FINANCE     
                                                                    RAJYA SABHA
              QUESTION NO 230
ANSWERED ON 25.11.2014
7th Pay Commission
230 SHRI SHANTARAM NAIK
Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to satate :-a) the details of meetings, the 7th Pay Commission has taken so far and the items/issues discussed till date;

b) the States, visited, by the Commission if any till date and the States which the Commission proposes to visit;
c) whether the Commission proposes to take the views of the State Governments as regards their pay-scales since invariably, most of the States adopt the Central Pay Commission reports;

d) whether Commission proposes to submit any interim report;
e) whether the Commission proposes to make any recommendations to bring in financial transparency; and
f) if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER
SHRI JAYANT SINHA
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

(a)&(b): The 7th Central Pay Commission is required to make its recommendations on its Terms of Reference. Also, the Commission is to devise its own procedure. The Commission’s Terms of Reference do not enjoin upon it to keep the Government updated on its functioning and the procedure being followed by it during the course of its deliberations. 

(c ): The Terms of Reference of the Commission provide that the Commission will make its recommendations, keeping in view, inter alia, the likely impact of the recommendations on the finances of the State Governments, which usually adopt the recommendations with some modifications.

(d)to(f): The Commission is required to submit its report on its Terms of Reference. However, no Report, including any interim one, has so far been submitted by the Commission.


Revision of flat rate of licence fee for General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) throughout the country

DOWNLOAD ADMIT CARD FOR POSTMAN/MAILGUARD EXAM 2014 - DELHI CIRCLE

(Click the link below  for details)
RELAXATION OF OPTION PERIOD RELATING TO 4- ADVANCE INCREMENT 




Saturday 13 December 2014

INAUGURATION CBS COUNTER BY SUPERINTENDENT SHRI P.S. RAGHUVANSHI VIDISHA DN. , POSTMASTER SHRI DEV SHARAN AT VIDISHA H.O. (M.P.)  DATED 8-12-2014 . BPEF PRESIDENT SHRI MANMOHAN SHARAM ALSO PRESENT & OTHERS EMPLOYEES 






JOINT DHARNA AND DEMONSTRATION BPEA GR. C , BPEA POSTMAN & MTS AND BEDEU CONTAI DN. IN FRONT OF CONTAI HEAD POST OFFICE ON 11-12-2014 IN PROTEST OF THE IMPASSIVE ATTITUDE OF ADMINISTATION 







Tuesday 2 December 2014

RAJYA SABHA QUESTION on Improvement in efficiency of Postal Services

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF  COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
RAJYA SABHA
QUESTION NO  684
ANSWERED ON  28.11.2014
Improvement in efficiency of postal services
684Shri A.U. Singh Deo
Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to satate :-
(a) whether Government has proposed plans to improve efficiency of postal services, if so, the details thereof;

(b) whether Government is planning any Public Private Partnership model in postal services, if so, the details thereof;

(c) if not, the reasons therefor;

(d) whether there is any proposal to raise employment in postal services for rural areas, if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the reasons therefor?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) Yes, Sir.

Performance of Post Offices is monitored on selected Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on Mails, Savings Bank and Money Orders through a web based mechanism.

The Government has undertaken the following steps to improve efficiency of Postal Services by:

(i) Introduction of a Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP), for consolidation and optimization of operational network.
(ii) Process redesigning at Speed Post Hubs and Intra Circle Hubs.
(iii) Strengthening of end –to-end online tracking system, resulting in increase in online tracking.
(iv) Regular performance review of all Postal Circles.

(b) & (c) No Sir.
(d) & (e) There is no new proposal to raise fresh employment in postal services for Branch Post Offices situated in rural areas. In fact, whenever any vacancy arises in any Departmental cadre, irrespective of its location in rural area or urban area, the same is filled up as per the provisions of the Recruitment rules of that particular cadre. Till filling up of vacancy, the work of the post is managed by redistribution/combination of duties and temporary attachment of personnel from other Post offices etc.
There are sufficient numbers of sanctioned posts of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) employees in rural areas. In addition, the Department has recently directed for expeditious filling up of all vacant posts of Gramin Dak Sevak Branch Postmasters.

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
LOK SABHA
UNSTARREDQUESTION NO101
ANSWERED ON  24.11.2014
SERVICES UNDER E GOVERNANCE
101 .Chauhan Shri Devusinh Jesingbhai
Will the Minister ofCOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYbe pleased to state:-


(a) whether the Government has prepared a road-map for complete e-Governance of services in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the total funds earmarked for the purpose during the last three years and the current year;

(c) the total number of services covered under e-Governance particularly at the infrastructure level;

(d) the details of benefits likely to be accrued to rural people through the scheme; and

(e) the time by which e-Governance facilities are likely to be provided across the country including rural areas?
ANSWER

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a): Government of India has launched the “Digital India” programme with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. Under the Digital India programme, Government has proposed to implement e-Kranti which envisages provisioning of various e-governance services in the country. The focus of the e- Kranti plan is to transform the e-Governance services by expanding the portfolio of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) in e-Governance under various Government Departments, undertaking Government Process Reengineering (GPR), Cloud Deployment, Mobile enablement and work flow automation.

(b): The funds earmarked for the purpose for e-governance during the last 3 years and the current year are as below:
Sr. Year  BE  RE  Actual
No.   (in Rs.  (in Rs.  (in Rs
   crore)  crore)  crore)
1 2011-12  1087.31  351.61  256.17
2 2012-13  975.00  450.00  416.58
3 2013-14  700.00  385.00  378.92
4 2014-15  1230.00    485.29(as on 14.11.2014)

(c): Under the National e-Governance Plan, it has been planned to provide 252 services under 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) covering various sectors. Out of these, 222 services have been made operational. To support these services at infrastructure level, core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure consisting of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centres (SDCs), Common Services Centres (CSCs) and State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG) have been set up in various States/UTs.

(d): The electronic services are being made available to all the citizens in rural areas through Common Services Centres (CSCs). Currently, 1.36 lakh CSCs are operational across the entire country. Electronic services are also being delivered through the mobile platform.

(e): The e-Kranti component under the Digital India programme envisages expansion of the portfolio of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) in e-Governance to cover more departments. The various MMPs under e-Kranti have their own plan and schedule of implementation for their projects.