Happy New Year-2016

Preparation of Combined All India Seniority List of Inspector Pots for the year 2001 and onwards

CHQ News:- Calendar of departmental examinations scheduled to be held in the year 2015---regarding

Delhi govt bureaucrats on mass leave agst suspension order

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Delhi government bureaucrats today went on mass leave to protest against the suspension of two DANICS-cadre officers even as the Union Home Ministry declared the suspension as null and void.

A day after two senior civil service officers of the Home Department were suspended by the AAP government for refusing to sign on a Cabinet decision file, around 200 DANICS officers went on mass leave while 70 IAS officers have gone on half-day leave, showing solidarity with the suspended officers.

The action was taken against Yashpal Garg, special secretary (Prosecution), and Subhash Chandra, after they refused to sign a file pertaining to the Cabinet decision to increase salary of public prosecutors.

However, the Union Home Ministry termed the suspension as null and void.

Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) are selected through civil service exams conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Only the Delhi Lt Governor can suspend DANICS-cadre officers with permission from the Union Home Ministry.

Reacting to the protest, Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain said DANICS and IAS officers do not have the right to go on strike as it is against their service rule.

Unfazed by IAS and DANICS officers associations' decision to skip work today, he said, "People will be happy if they go on strike. All system pertaining to governance is based online today and government will not suffer." 

The Delhi Home Minister further said that Delhi government was ready to grant all officers even one month or 15-day leave if they apply for the same.

"The two officers were suspended for not implementing Cabinet decision on December 28. If they had any problem with my order, they should have approached Chief Minister not LG.Lt Governor has already asked officers to defy government decision," he charged.

Re-designation of the post of Higher Selection Grade-I Head Clerk in SB Control Organisation and SB Pairing Units / Offices as Higher Selection Grade-I in Savings Bank Control Organisation ( SBCO )

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Tax officers to raise only specific queries in scrutiny : Revenue Secretary

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Seeking to eliminate corruption and promote ease of doing business, the revenue department has asked field offices only to raise specific queries in income tax assessment cases picked up for scrutiny.

Issuing comprehensive norms for scrutiny, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said questionnaires on specific issues should be sent to assessees so that there is no waste of man-hour and unnecessary visits to tax department are avoided.

"We are trying to evolve a system where the interface between the assessee and tax officials is minimum. This will also help in eliminating corruption and reducing harassment of of honest tax payers," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told PTI.

Under the new dispensation, he said, the focus of the department would be on e-scrutiny and the assessees will not have to queue up before tax offices without knowing what is required from them.

As per the instructions, tax officials should expeditiously complete in a certain number of hearings the case which has been taken up for limited scrutiny.

These initiatives form part of the drive to make the system more transparent and tax payer friendly, Adhia said adding, "I was taken aback to know that tax officials would summon assesses without raising any specific query".

Issuing the instruction, CBDT said that while issuing the first notice, the Assessment Officers (AOs) do not convey to assessees the specific compliance requirement like production of accounts and furnishing of documents. .

Cabinet may give go-ahead to labour ministry proposal of extending maternity leave to 26 weeks

The Union Cabinet may soon give its go-ahead to a labour ministry proposal to extend maternity leave to 26 weeks from 12 weeks. Mothers who use surrogates to bear a child and women adopting a baby could also get 12 weeks of maternity leave. 

Extending maternity leave is in sync with benefits available to central government employees and has been done to enable mothers breastfeed their child for at least six months and help reduce high rates of child malnutrition in the country, a senior government official told ET.

"We have substantially enhanced benefits under the Maternity Act. This is likely to be approved by the Cabinet soon, after which it will go to Parliament as it requires amendment in the Act," the official told ET on condition of anonymity. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, presently entitles women to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. 

According to the official, the amendment bill is unlikely to face resistance in Parliament as the ministry has held consultations with stakeholders for such sweeping changes that would benefit a large number of working women. 

Women with government jobs in India get a six-month maternity leave, as per the Central Civil Service (Leave) Rules, 1972. The last circular in this regard was issued in 2008, when it was increased from four-and-a-half months. 

The International Labour Organisation recommends a standard maternity leave of 14 weeks or more, though it encourages member states to increase it to at least 18 weeks. At 26 weeks, India is set to join a league of 42 countries where maternity leave exceeds 18 weeks. It, however, falls behind several East European, Central Asian and Scandinavian countries, which have more generous paid maternity leave. 

The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for babies up to six months old, saying it reduces child mortality and has proven health benefits that extend into adulthood. Yet, only 47% of Indian mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months, compared with 70% in neighbouring Nepal and 76% in Sri Lanka. 

Source:-The Economic Times

Government seeks ideas from public for Budget 2016-17

The Centre has asked citizens to send in ideas and proposals for the next Union Budget, saying many such suggestions had made it to the budget for 2015-16. 

The Ministry of Finance has decided to ask for suggestions on the MyGov.in platform by January 20 to foster 'Jan Bhagidari' and infuse more transparency into the budgetmaking exercise and involve people as partners in the process. The budget is usually presented in Parliament on the last day of February. 

PM Narendra Modi asked BJP MPs on December 22 to reach out to the public to get inputs for the upcoming Budget. A week earlier, he reminded his council of ministers about the budget preparations and asked them to contribute ideas. The government will launch a crowd-sourcing exercise for the Rail Budget as well. 

The government said many crowd sourced ideas earlier this year had made it to the Union Budget and Railway Budget of 2015-16. They included proposals to moneytise gold and launch sovereign gold bonds, abolish wealth tax and simplify tax structures, create special tax incentive for promotion of Yoga and make sharing of PAN mandatory for cash transactions above a specified value. 

Source:-The Economic Times 

GS writes to Director (SPN Section) on issuance of combined All India Seniority List (Gradation list) of Inspector of Posts from the year 2001 onwards…..reg.

No. CHQ/IPASP/Seniority List/2012                              Dated :   29/12/2015.

To,

Shri N. T. Paite,

Director (SPN Section), 

Dak Bhavan, Room No. 413,

Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110 001.

Subject : Issue of combined All India Seniority List (Gradation list) of   Inspector of Posts from the year 2001 onwards…..reg.

Ref.        :  Dte. No. 9-09/2011-SPG dated 18/12/2014

Respected Sir, 

          IP/ASP Association would like to invite your kind attention to its letters of even Nos. dated 1/9/2014, 13/10/2014, 12/1/2015, 26/3/2015 and 15/6/2015 regarding issue of combined All India Seniority List (Gradation list) of Inspector Posts from the year 2001 onwards.

Furthermore it is once again bring to your kind notice that as on date, 14 years combined seniority lists of Inspector Posts Cadre is not prepared and released by the Directorate. You may be agree that since last one decade this Association is requesting to issue seniority lists in phase manner and thereafter Directorate vide memo No. 9-09/2011-SPG dated 21/2/2014 has released seniority list of Inspector Posts cadre for the years 1998 and 1999 and vide memo No. 9-09/2011-SPG dated 18/12/2014 had issued only for the year 2000. It is sorry to mention here that since last one year there is no progress in this matter. The representations made by our few members are also neither resolved by Circles nor by Directorate. It is learnt that few circles have yet not submitted their circle seniority lists to Directorate despite issue of reminders.

It is therefore urged to call the concerned officers of the circles at Directorate immediately with related records and get the pending lists prepared / clear their doubts if any on the spot and issue the pending seniority lists in phase manner only to avoid further complications if any.   

A positive action and line in reply is requested.                                       

           Yours sincerely,

Sd/- 

(Vilas Ingale)

General Secretary

Discontinuation of Interview at Junior Level Posts in the Government of India - recommendation of Committee of Secretaries.

To view Department of Personnel and Training OM No.39020/01/2013-Estt (B)-Part dated 29-12-2015 please Click Here.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad Inaugurates Good Governance Week Celebration

23 New Products Launched

Payment Bank to Begin from March 2017

A week-long celebration of Good Governance Week was organized by Department of Electronics and Information Technology starting from 25^th December 2015. A National event on Good Governance was inaugurated on 28th December 2015 by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Hon’ble Minister of Communications & Information Technology (MoCIT) in India Habitat Centre at New Delhi. This event involved active participation from Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Department of Posts (DoP) and their agencies.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad reiterated the commitment of the Government towards the successful implementation of ‘Digital India’ which would help to transform India into a truly digitally empowered society and knowledge economy in the 21st century. He said the government is aiming at empowering people of India through digitalization. Millions of citizens have already joined in this initiative and invited others to do so. He said e-services should reach more people at the earliest and sought cooperation from State Governments, industry and acadmecia in the early achievement of this objective.

Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad also announced that India Post would be launching Payment Banking by March 2017. He said after the successful turn around of BSNL, new initiatives have been taken for improving performance of MTNL. He also announced launch of free incoming all over the Country by MTNL from New Year.

The event saw the launch / inauguration of new 23 products / eServices.

The key launches are as follows:

Department of Telecommunications ·         Inauguration of Wi-Fi hotspots at Har ki Pauri, Haridwar and Dargah Sharif, Ajmer. ·         Announcement of Pan India Free Incoming Roaming Facility for MTNL Customers.	Department of Posts ·         Launch of Post-Terminals (Rural ICT - RICT) – handing over Post Terminals to rural Post Masters.
Department of Electronics and Information Technology
·         Launch of National Centre of Geo-Informatics ·         Launch of e-Payment Portal ·         Launch of Olabs for Schools ·         Launch of Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Phase-II ·         All India BPO Promotion Scheme	·         North East Business Process Outsourcing Promotion Scheme ·         Transfer of Technology for “ICT Centre on Tactile Graphics” at IIT Delhi ·         Announcement of Setting up of NIC Data Centre at Bhubaneswar

* The detail on each of 23 new products / eservices is available at the Digital India Portal (www.digitalindia.gov.in).

The awards for best performing States/Districts during the Digital India Week event (1^st July – 7^th July, 2015) were given to:

a.       State level – Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

b.      District level – 77 Districts across 29 States/UTs.

Source:-PIB

Five ways to make an employee a risk taker

By Varuni Khosla, ET Bureau 

Lead by Example 

Managers often need to take risky decisions in order to achieve innovative outcomes. It is imperative for managers to not just introduce and encourage innovations within an organisation but also implement them to set an example for others, said Peesh Chopra, managing partner, Peesh Venture Capital. 

Face Rejection 

According to experts, approval must be expected as default outcome while rejection should be a considered decision. If the manager wants to say no to an idea, he or she should write a two-page thesis explaining why it's a bad idea. This will result in more ideas being tested, said Mohit Gundecha, co-founder of Jombay, a company built on people science and analytics. 

Open to Ideas 

Saying yes to most suggestions will encourage experimentation and make it an important part of an organisation's culture. "The biggest risk is not taking any risk," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, reminded Rajeev Thakur, director, Grassik Search Pvt Ltd. 

Right Platform 

A formal platform for new initiatives will give employees more confidence to come up with new ideas, said Vidur Gupta, co-founder of Spectrum Talent Management. 

Be Proactive 

Managers should avoid spoon-feeding employees and tracking all their moves. They should instead encourage a culture of minimum viable feedback and give people room to experiment, said Gundecha. 

Source:-The Economic Times

India Post 's payment bank to start from March 2017: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister for Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday that the India Post Payment Bank will start operations in March 2017. He said several Indian and foreign financial institutions such as the World Bank and Deutsche Bank have approached the state-owned postal department for a tie-up. Prasad was speaking at the ministry's annual Good Governance Day conference. 

During the Good Governance Day conference, Prasad, accompanied by key officials of his ministry, announced a slew of initiatives spanning the departments of telecom, posts and electronics and IT. Some of the highlights included the launch of a National Centre of Geo-Informatics, which will be a platform for sharing and collaborating GIS data source and location-based analytics that will aid central and state governments in planning, decision-making and electronic delivery of services. 

Prasad also announced a mobile application for Digital Locker, one of the marquee schemes under the Digital India platform. While inaugurating public Wi-Fi hotspots at Haridwar and Ajmer, Prasad said such hotspots have already been set up in 500 places in 200 centres and will be extended to 2,500 by March next year. Good governance is defined by easy, effective and economical governance, he said. "Digital India is something we owe to the people of India," Prasad added. 

It was announced that MTNL will now offer free roaming to its customers from January 1. BSNL had started offering free incoming calls on roaming to its customers earlier this year. While the threshold for the broadband limit has been increased to 2 mbps from 512 kbps, mobile towers will be set up in Naxal-affected areas in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. 

JS Deepak, secretary of the department of electronics and IT (DEITY), said out of the one billion Internet users globally, 500 million will soon come from India. "Through the launch of the epayment portal, we will be making government transactions cashless," he said. Deepak said he hopes by next December at least 90% of all government payments will be done electronically. 

Source:-The Economic Times

Babus on foreign jaunts need to spell out outcome of such tours

Government officials undertaking foreign trips will have to clearly spell out the outcome of such tours. All those who undertook official foreign visits since 2013-14 need to submit details of the outcome of such tours in the next few days.

The move comes against the backdrop of persistent feeling in many quarters that the trips, ostensibly for gaining experience and insights, often turn into pleasure jaunts. There have been cases of officials traveling abroad in numbers more than necessary, stretching the duration of stay and visiting and stopping at places irrelevant to the stated purpose of the trip.

In keeping with the new work culture, the NDA government has created a website under its Software Management Information System for uploading details of foreign tours and visits by officials. Ministries and departments have set a December-end deadline for its officials to upload details on this portal.

Moreover, every ministry and department has been directed to prepare a "rolling plan" for future foreign visits to be undertaken by officials. "The idea behind the rolling plan is to submit the proposed trips of officials in the next quarter. This can be updated and amended. Government wants foreign trips by officials on government expenditure to be result-oriented," said a senior government official.

According to sources, cabinet secretary P K Sinha recently called a meeting to ensure that officials and departments comply with the decision.

"In certain cases, it's difficult to get the details of foreign visits by officials, who have already gone back to the states or are retired. But the message has gone to one and all to provide the outcomes of their visits since they must be keeping some details. We are also trying to get the records kept in departments so that some details can be uploaded," said a government source.

Source:-The Times of India

No LPG subsidy for consumers with taxable income of more than Rs 10 lakh from January 1

Subsidised cooking gas will no longer be provided to consumers earning Rs 10 lakh or more a year, the oil ministry said on Monday, continuing a series of reforms including market-based diesel prices, direct transfer of LPG subsidy and a new approach towards oilfield contracts that eliminates bureaucratic meddling.

The new system will begin in the new year and deny subsidy to such consumers even if the cooking gas connection is in the name of the spouse, the ministry said. In keeping with the approach of trusting the citizens, the rule will initially be implemented on self-declaration basis for cylinders booked from January 2016 onwards, it said.

Currently, there are 16.35 crore cooking gas connections in the country. The government had earlier successfully implemented the PAHAL scheme, which transferred cooking gas subsidy directly to bank accounts of 14.78 crore customers to ensure that benefits go only to the target group.

The government had also given a call to well-to-do households for voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy. This encouraged 57.50 lakh consumers to opt out of LPG subsidy voluntarily.

"The subsidy saved from the 'GiveitUp' campaign is being utilised for providing new connections to the BPL families under the 'Giveback' campaign to help provide the clean fuel to poor households and replace kerosene, coal, fuel wood and cow dung burnt in kitchens," the ministry said in a statement.

It further said that while many consumers have given up subsidy voluntarily, it is felt that consumers in the higher income bracket should get LPG cylinders at the market price.

"Therefore, the government has decided that the benefit of the LPG subsidy will not be available for LPG consumers if the consumer or his/her spouse had taxable income of more than Rs 10,00,000/- during the previous financial year computed as per the Income Tax Act, 1961," the ministry said. 

Source:-The Economic Times

CHQ News:- DPC : JTS Gr. A cadre for the year 2015-16

DPC for the promotion to the cadre of Junior Times Scale (JTS) of Indian Postal Service (IPoS) for the vacancy year 2015-16 was convened for 36 vacancies (OC - 30, SC-4 and ST-2). The result of DPC is expected soon.

CHQ News...........

A)   As our all members aware that Directorate vide memo No. 9-9/2015-SPG dated 2^nd December 2015 has forwarded the copies of seniority lists of Inspector Posts cadre from 1992 to 1999 to all circles for up-dation by giving target date 10/12/2015. On enquiry it is learnt that not a single circle has updated the seniority lists provided by Directorate.  The updation of seniority list of Inspector Posts cadre is required at the time of calling APARs and other documents for holding the DPC meetings for promotion to cadre of PS Gr. B.

B)   Directorate vide DO No. 4-18/2015-SPG dated 27^th November 2015 called for APARs of the PS Gr. B officers falling within the ZoC for the period from 2009-10 to 2014-15 for holding of DPC for promotion to Junior Time Scale (JTS) of Indian Postal Service (IPoS) Group ‘A’ for the vacancy year 2016-17. The APARs and documents/papers as required to Directorate are to be submitted in person by the concerned AD/APMG (Staff) of the circle on the allotted date. It is noticed that, in this matter also there is no positive action from circles.

CHQ News:- Request for Allocation of candidates, nominated by Staff Selection Commission for appointment as Inspector Posts on the basis of Combined Graduate Level Examination 2014, to Postal Circles

No. GS/AIAIASP/DR-IP-2014/2015                                Dated :  23/12/2015

To,

Ms. Kavery Banerejee,

Secretary,

Department of Posts,

Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg,

New Delhi 110 001.

Subject : Request for Allocation of candidates, nominated by Staff Selection Commission for appointment as Inspector Posts on the basis of Combined Graduate Level Examination 2014, to Postal Circles.

Respected Madam,

Directorate vide memo number 7-4/2015-SPB-II dated 7^th July 2015 has allotted 121 candidates of Inspector Posts (Direct Recruit) to various postal circles for vacancy year 2013 with the directions to issue appointment orders after completing usual formalities, but this work is going on leisurely in few circles.

IP/ASP Association would like to bring to your kind notice that since last 3 years no recruitment is made in Inspector Posts cadre against the Direct Recruit reserved quota. As everybody knows that as on date there are 300 plus Direct Recruit posts of Inspector Posts are vacant in the circles and many Inspectors are holding dual charge since years together. It is to point out that few IPs are still not getting Rule 38 transfer to their parent circle owing to the shortage.

I am enclosing therewith a list of 102 candidates selected by Staff Selection Commission for the appointment as Inspector Posts (Direct Recruit) against the vacancy year 2014.

It is therefore earnestly requested your kind honour to kindly direct SPB-II Division of Directorate to allot 102 candidates of 2014 batch immediately to circles. It is also requested that women candidates may be allotted to their parent circle and as far as possible male candidates may be allotted to neighbouring circle to their home town.

Hopping for an early action.

Yours sincerely,

 Sd/-

(Vilas Ingale)

General Secretary

Inter-Circle Transfer of Inspectors of Posts under Rule 38 of P&T Manual Vol. IV—Case of Sri Fayaz A., Inspector Posts, Tenkasi Sub Division, Tenkasi 627811 (Tamil Nadu).

No. CHQ/IPASP/Tfr-38/TN/2015                           Dated :        23/12/2015.

To,

Ms Kavery Banerjee,

Secretary,

Department of Posts,

Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg,

New Delhi 110001.

Subject : Inter-Circle  Transfer of Inspectors of Posts under Rule 38 of P&T Manual Vol. IV—Case of Sri Fayaz A., Inspector Posts, Tenkasi Sub Division, Tenkasi 627811 (Tamil Nadu).

Respected Madam,  

          IP/ASP Association intends to bring to your kind notice certain issues concerning under Rule-38 transfer orders in the IP cadre. While admitting that transfer/posting is administrative privilege, but it is also fact thatDirectorate guidelines contained in letter number A-141-177/2009-SPB-II dated 14^th December, 2010 for Inter-Circle transfer of Inspectors of Posts under Rule 38 of P&T Manual Vol. IV are not being adhered to in the Circles. Thereby principle of justice does not prevail now-a-days. Consent given by other Circles to adjust the incumbents, circumstances under which IP/ASP are working in the circles have no meaning in some cases. Even the humanitarian grounds are not being considered while deciding such issues

          Transfer case of Sri Fayaz A., Inspector Posts, Tenkasi Sub Division, Tenkasi 627811 (Tamil Nadu) to his parent Kerala Circle is not considered by CPMG Tamil Nadu Circle due to acute shortage of IPs in Tamil Nadu Circle. Such type of instances not only cause hardship for the cadre but also demoralizes them thereby effecting business and work of the administration. You will agree that IPs/ASPs working at farther places from their home always having language problems, face difficulties resulting in frustrations and home sickness. Shri Fayaz A. is direct recruit IP through SSC and applied for transfer on family ground. There are more than 10 vacancies are available in Kerala Circle in IP cadre.  

          Hence, the Association appeals to your kind honour to kindly examine the above issues and direct CPMG Tamil Nadu circle to consider the case of Sri Fayaz A. for transfer under Rule 38 to Kerala Circle. The copy of representation received from officer is enclosed for reference.

         

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

Sd/- 

(Vilas Ingale)

General Secretary

Merry Christmas

Finance Ministry directs Income Tax department to quote email, phone numbers in notices

In an attempt to bring authenticity to e-mail based communication to taxpayers, the Finance Ministry has asked Income Tax department officials to mandatorily mention their email and official phone numbers in such letters and notices.

An official order, accessed by PTI, in this regard was issued by the Ministry sometime back on the directions of Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia.

"Henceforth any notice, letter, communication issued by any officer under Department of Revenue, including CBDT, its directorates and field formations to the taxpayers, members of public should invariably contain mention of email address and office phone numbers, of the officers signing such, communications, notice, letters for facilitating tax payers' electronic interface with the department.

"All are requested to kindly ensure that the above directions are strictly followed," the order said.

A senior official explained the step had been taken to lend the required "authenticity" to electronic communications which at times are fraught with the danger of being fake or an phishing attempt on the taxpayer.

"In case of doubt, the recipient or taxpayer could check the authenticity of the notice or letter sent by the Assessing Officer or the IT officer. The attempt is to make e-comunication by IT department safe, secure and reliable," the official said.

The department has recently launched a first-ever pilot project to begin an email based scrutiny assessment of taxpayers in select cities.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, the policy-making body of the IT department, had recently also notified use of emails as the new mode of communication between the taxman and taxpayers, as part of the government's e-initiative to reduce human interface and complaints of harassment and corruption in conducting tax-related jobs.

Henceforth, the taxman can now send official communication to "email address available in the income-tax return furnished by the addressee to which the communication relates or the email address available in the last income tax return furnished by the addressee or in the case of addressee being a company, email address of the company as available on the website of ministry of corporate affairs".

The department, in order to reduce the taxpayers' visit to the IT office, had launched the 'pilot' project and the first set of e-communications have been decided to be mailed to 100 chosen people each in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai regions.

The CBDT had recently asked the department to "initiate the concept of using email for corresponding with taxpayers and sending through emails the questionnaire, notice etc. at the time of scrutiny proceedings and getting responses from them."

"This would eliminate the necessity of visiting the Income Tax offices by the taxpayers, particularly in smaller cases, involving limited issues and where taxpayer is able to provide details required by the Assessing Officer (AO) without necessitating his physical presence," the order had said. 

Source:-The Ecomic Times

Declaration of Holiday on 24th December, 2015 on occasion of Prophet Mohammad's Birthday (Id-E-Milad)

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Government says goodbye to clerk era, changes designation for its staff

Designations like Lower Division Clerk (LDC) and Upper Division Clerk (UDC) in central government's employee hierarchy have been replaced with new nomenclature. 

The posts of UDC and LDC under Central Secretariat Clerical Service (CSCS) have been rechristened as Senior Secretariat Assistant and Junior Secretariat Assistant, respectively, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. 

Besides, the post of Assistant under Central Secretariat Service (CSS) has been renamed as Assistant Section Officer, it said. 

Both the CSCS and CSS form the backbone of administrative work in the central government. 

The total sanctioned strength of CSS and CSCS is 11,467 and 5,933 respectively. 

Earlier in March, the DoPT had decided to replace the 'class' categorisation for specifying the seniority of its employees with new alphabetical groupings. 

The posts under the central government will be denoted as groups A, B, C and D instead of classes I, II, III and IV in the service rules, it had said. 

The Class-III (Group C) employees had expressed concern that they were taunted as 'third-class' employees due to the categorisation. 

The Class-I classification is for gazetted officers while Class-II refers to mainly the non-gazetted officers, though there are some gazetted officers in this category too. 

Class-III comprises clerical staff and Class-IV (which is now subsumed in Class III or Group C) includes peons and helps or multi-tasking staff in the government hierarchy. 

Source:-The Economic Times

Lok Sabha approved hike of wage ceiling for bonus to Rs 21,000 per month from Rs 10,000 and monthly bonus calculation ceiling to Rs 7,000 per month from Rs 3,500

The Lok Sabha has approved amendments to the Payment of Bonus Act that seeks to make more workers eligible for bonus by raising the pay eligibility limit of employees to Rs 21,000 per month from Rs 10,000. 

The bill, tabled in the house earlier this month, also seeks to enhance the monthly bonus calculation ceiling to Rs 7,000 per month from Rs 3,500, thus substantially increasing the amount of bonus. 

Both the proposed changes are in line with the demands of 10 central trade unions, which had observed a day-long strike on September 22. 

The bill will now be tabled in Rajya Sabha. Once approved, it will be made effective from April 1, 2015. 

"I thank all parties for supporting the historic decision of this government," Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said after the discussion in Lok Sabha. 

The Payment of Bonus Act 1965 is applicable to every factory and other establishment in which 20 or more people are employed on any day during an accounting year. 

The bill also provides for a new proviso in Section 12, which empowers the central government to vary the basis of computing the bonus. 

As it stands today, Section 12 says that where the salary or wage of an employee exceeds Rs 3,500 per month, the minimum or maximum bonus payable to the employee shall be calculated as if his salary or wage was Rs 3,500 per month. 

The last amendment to both the eligibility limit and the calculation ceilings under the Act was carried out in 2007 and made effective from April 1, 2006. 

This amendment in the Act to increase wage ceiling and bonus calculation ceiling was one of assurances given by the Centre after 10 central trade unions went on a day-long strike on September 2. 

Source:-The Economic Times

A Postal employee brings laurels to the country

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CHQ News:- Constitution of a GDS Committee - order dated 21.12.2015

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