To view the clarification issued vide SB Order No.16/2012 please Click here.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Ajmal Kasab hanged at Yerwada Jail in Pune at 7:30am on 21.11.2012
NEW DELHI: In a secret operation, LeT terrorist and
26/11 attacks accused Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was hanged in the high-security
Yerwada Jail in Pune at 7:30am today after a four-year-long trial. Maharashtra
chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said he was buried inside the Yerwada Jail at
9.30am.
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Kasab's end came just five days before the fourth anniversary of the brutal
terror attacks that killed 166 lives and injured 300.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
President releases Commemorative Postage Stamp on Late Shri Ramgopal Ji Maheshwari
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee released a commemorative postage stamp on late Shri Ramgopal Ji Maheshwari, on the eve of the start of his birth centenary year (November 20,2011 to November 20, 2012) at a function today (20.11.2012) at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Shri Ramgopal Ji Maheshwari was a freedom fighter, doyen of journalism, a committed social worker and a person who left no stone unturned for the cause of promotion of Hindi language. He started biweekly paper ‘Nava Bharat’ from Nagpur. He successfully directed the publication of Nava Bharat as Chief Editor and was known as “Bhishma Pitamaha” of journalism in Central and Western India.
Besides being involved in the freedom movement, Shri Ramgopal Maheshwari also made great efforts to eradicate conservative customs from the Maheshwari Samaj and make it more progressive.
Among the dignitaries present on the occasion was Dr. (Smt) Kruparani Killi, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.
Shri Ramgopal Ji Maheshwari was a freedom fighter, doyen of journalism, a committed social worker and a person who left no stone unturned for the cause of promotion of Hindi language. He started biweekly paper ‘Nava Bharat’ from Nagpur. He successfully directed the publication of Nava Bharat as Chief Editor and was known as “Bhishma Pitamaha” of journalism in Central and Western India.
Besides being involved in the freedom movement, Shri Ramgopal Maheshwari also made great efforts to eradicate conservative customs from the Maheshwari Samaj and make it more progressive.
Among the dignitaries present on the occasion was Dr. (Smt) Kruparani Killi, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology.
Source:-PIB
CHQ News:-Requested Directorate to entrust LDCE to SSC/UPSC instead CMC Ltd.
No. CHQ/IPASP/IP-Exam-12 /2012 Dated : 19/11/2012 .
To,
Ms Manjula Prasher,
Director General,
Department of Posts,
Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg,
Subject: Regarding Omissions in Recruitment Rules for Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for promotion to the cadre of Inspector of Posts for the year 2012.
Ref. : Directorate Recruitment division Letter No. A-34012/04/2011-DE dated 14.7.2011 and Letter No. A-34012/07/2012-DE dated 7.6.2012 & 22.8.2012.
Respected Madam,
This Association wishes to share its concern over the LDCE system in vogue in the department. Ever since CMC has taken over the reins of examination system of DOP there is complete chaos and as such created mockery of the examination system. The papers are not framed in conformity to the syllabus circulated by the department. As a result the prospective candidates have to suffer. In the recently held Inspector Post Examination, Paper-IV (IPO) question booklet was given an ‘option’ either to answer 50 questions of ‘General English’ or ‘General Hindi’ (Samanya Hindi) whereas it was mentioned in the revised syllabus particularly Paper IV shall consist of ENGLISH LANGUAGE, G.K. & REASONING /INTELLIGENCE, thereby completely excluding HINDI LANGUAGE. Obviously, the Department by explicitly including ‘English language’ has left out ‘Hindi language’ from the ambit of syllabus for Paper IV. In these circumstances the prospective candidates appearing for the said examination were naturally supposed to prepare ‘English language’ paper in accordance with Department’s revised syllabus ignoring the ‘Hindi language (as it was omitted and not specified in the revised syllabus). The logic of omitting the National Language ‘HINDI’ from the revised syllabus was surprising. Had there been an option either to choose ‘English language’ or ‘Hindi language in the revised syllabus, many of the candidates would have preferred ‘Hindi language’ being more proficient in that. Inspite of the fact that the schedule for the examination was postponed on three occasions, the Department never realised / rectified the error crept in their circular dated 14.7.2011 omitting ‘Hindi language’. Hitherto the department had to cancel the Paper-III of the same cadre being the law paper out of syllabus.
It is pertinent to mention here that when for the first time department conducted PS Group “B” examination through outsourcing as per the revised syllabus contained in Directorate Memo no. 9-59/2010-SPG dated 08.03.2011, this Association raised an issue for not giving option to write paragraph in bi-lingual (Hindi & English). At that time candidates were not allowed to write paragraph in Hindi by the staff of CMC Ltd. at Delhi Centre whereas staff of CMC Ltd. allowed candidates to write paragraph in Hindi at few centres like Dehradun Centre. InUP Circle
Madam, you will agree the considerable importance attached to the provision of article 351 of the Constitution, which prescribes development of the Hindi language. It shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language, to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages. Therefore, every encouragement should be given to the use of easy and simple diction. This Association therefore suggest you that enquiry may kindly be constituted for above chaos and the Hindi language be given its due place. It would be fair and appropriate if the examination work is entrusted to SSC/UPSC instead of CMC Ltd., as has done by other departments.
Hoping for a favourable action and line in reply is requested.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Vilas Ingale)
General Secretary
Monday, November 19, 2012
9 Attitudes towards a happy ‘You’
The key to happiness is to do the same things you do everyday but with a slightly different approach. Start bringing those changes in your attitude towards life and you'll see how simple it is to be happy!
Life Coach Ramon Llamba shares nine significant attitudes that help you become happier in life.
Gratitude
Appreciate what you have and value it. Try counting your positives and be grateful for all the good things and people in your life. Stop complaining and be thankful for what you already have and you'll soon start feeling happy.
Optimism
Treat failure as an opportunity to learn a new and better lesson from life, and that's the trick to manufacture optimism in life. Never give up trying because that's an indication that something better is in store. Once you start harbouring an optimistic attitude towards life, success will automatically follow.
Avoid comparison
Nothing is as awful as comparing yourself to someone else. If you think you're better that the other person, you're letting yourself regale in an unhealthy sense of superiority. If you demean yourself in front of others, it means all your hard work and progress has been in vain. While social comparisons are unhealthy, self-improvement is effective.
Kindness
There's a scientific reason behind every act of kindness that you do. Helping someone selflessly releases serotonin in your brain (Serotonin is the hormone that controls your mood) and hence makes you feel good about yourself almost instantly. Try doing one act of kindness everyday to flush out the toxins of depression from your system.
Nurture relationships
Relationships keep us alive and kicking. In fact, according to research studies loneliness doubles people's mortality rates. A circle of good friends, loving family members and cheerful colleagues are a reminder that you have people who care about you. There's nothing like having someone who you can share your experiences with. So nurture these relationships and say goodbye to a lonesome existence.
Forgive
Hatred is a negative feeling and harbouring it will have nothing but negative effects on your well-being. Stop thinking about the hateful emotion/person and let it go. Forgive if needed, take things lightly and let it not affect your system.
Commit to your goals
If you have a goal, work towards it. Anything is achievable if you put your heart into it. Wholehearted dedication and diligence can bring extraordinary results and consequentially add to your happiness.
Spirituality
Spirituality teaches us that life is bigger than us and it helps us connect to the larger meanings of life. Practice spirituality to understand the source of all creation and feel connected to everything that exists in this world.
Care for your body
Love yourself and love your body! Your physical condition has a direct connection with your well-being. A fit body and healthy mind is reflective of happiness. Start working towards the health of your physical, mental and emotional energy by caring for your body.
Life Coach Ramon Llamba shares nine significant attitudes that help you become happier in life.
Gratitude
Appreciate what you have and value it. Try counting your positives and be grateful for all the good things and people in your life. Stop complaining and be thankful for what you already have and you'll soon start feeling happy.
Optimism
Treat failure as an opportunity to learn a new and better lesson from life, and that's the trick to manufacture optimism in life. Never give up trying because that's an indication that something better is in store. Once you start harbouring an optimistic attitude towards life, success will automatically follow.
Avoid comparison
Nothing is as awful as comparing yourself to someone else. If you think you're better that the other person, you're letting yourself regale in an unhealthy sense of superiority. If you demean yourself in front of others, it means all your hard work and progress has been in vain. While social comparisons are unhealthy, self-improvement is effective.
Kindness
There's a scientific reason behind every act of kindness that you do. Helping someone selflessly releases serotonin in your brain (Serotonin is the hormone that controls your mood) and hence makes you feel good about yourself almost instantly. Try doing one act of kindness everyday to flush out the toxins of depression from your system.
Nurture relationships
Relationships keep us alive and kicking. In fact, according to research studies loneliness doubles people's mortality rates. A circle of good friends, loving family members and cheerful colleagues are a reminder that you have people who care about you. There's nothing like having someone who you can share your experiences with. So nurture these relationships and say goodbye to a lonesome existence.
Forgive
Hatred is a negative feeling and harbouring it will have nothing but negative effects on your well-being. Stop thinking about the hateful emotion/person and let it go. Forgive if needed, take things lightly and let it not affect your system.
Commit to your goals
If you have a goal, work towards it. Anything is achievable if you put your heart into it. Wholehearted dedication and diligence can bring extraordinary results and consequentially add to your happiness.
Spirituality
Spirituality teaches us that life is bigger than us and it helps us connect to the larger meanings of life. Practice spirituality to understand the source of all creation and feel connected to everything that exists in this world.
Care for your body
Love yourself and love your body! Your physical condition has a direct connection with your well-being. A fit body and healthy mind is reflective of happiness. Start working towards the health of your physical, mental and emotional energy by caring for your body.
Source:-The Times of India
Paint 'a holiday' for ticket to posterity
ALLAHABAD: Here is an opportunity for budding artists to bid for posterity-Department of Posts is holding a 'design a stamp' competition and the winning post could well assume the form of a postal stamp that would be released on Children's Day (November 14) next year. Competition is scheduled to be organised in head post offices of Allahabad Region and the topic for this year's contest is 'A holiday'.
Sharing details with TOI, director Postal Services Allahabad region Krishna Kumar Yadav said "Department of Posts is offering a unique opportunity in the National level design a stamp competition in which the best paintings will be released in the form of postal stamps on Children's Day next year." Yadav said the Department of Posts has been organising the competition since 1998 and participation of children and students to design the postage stamp has been a regular practice since then.
The participants are to required to make an original design on this subject. There will be three groups, including up to Class IV, Class V to VIII and Class IX to XII. There will be three levels of prize for all categories. The prize wining design in each category will be considered for use on stamps and other philatelic material. The prize money for all categories will be Rs 10,000, Rs 6,000 and Rs 4,000 for first, second and third prizes, respectively. Prize winning entries at National level are likely to be chosen as design for a postage stamp, first day cover and miniature sheet.
In Allahabad region, the competition will be held on Saturday, November 23 at 11am at head post offices of Allahabad Region. The design could be in ink, water colour, oil colour or any other medium.
Participants are free to use drawing paper, art paper or any other type of paper. The competition will be organised in head post offices of Allahabad, Varanasi, Pratapgarh and Jaunpur. Nomination of students can be sent to the senior superintendant concerned of post offices and senior postmasters latest by November 20.
Source:-The Times of India
High Court: Retd employees can't benefit financially at exchequer's cost
A recent judgment of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court can serve as a guideline for retired employees. The court ruled in favour of Union of India which had approached the judiciary against gratuity claims of two of its former employees for getting added pension benefits. "The retired employees, on the basis of their meritless, unreasonable and excessive claim, cannot be allowed to make money and enrich themselves unjustly by causing undue financial loss to the state exchequer," a division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Ashok Bhangale ruled.
Two city based government employees working with the Postal Department - Venkatraman Rajgopalan and Mukund Paranjape - retired on superannuation on the afternoon of March 31, 1995. They applied for enhanced gratuity claims and other retirement benefits from the government which came into effect from April 1, 1995. However, it was rejected on the grounds that these benefits would be applicable to them if they had retired on or after this date. The senior citizen duo then approached Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Mumbai Bench camp at Nagpur. They pleaded that they should be deemed in service till midnight of March 31 and retired on next day.
The ministry of communication, however, opposed the move contending that the respondents retired on March 31 and not on April 1, and hence are not entitled to the benefits. However, the full bench of CAT decided in favour of the duo on October 15, 1999. It ruled that a government servant completing the age of superannuation on March 31, 1995, and relinquishing charge of his office in the afternoon of that day is deemed to have effectively retired from service with effect from April 1, 1995.
The ministry then moved the judiciary challenging the tribunal's order in 2000. It cited Karnataka High Court verdict stating that "the date of retirement is the last date of the month in which the government servant retires and the gratuity is to be calculated as per rules in force as on that date".
The judges observed that Rajgopalan was born on March 3, 1937, while Paranjape on March 29, 1937, and both of them retired on March 31, 1995. "But law clearly lay down that their date of retirement and last working day has to be the same. Due to Rule 5(2) of Pension Rules, they could continue till March 31; which in reality was beyond their actual completion of the age of superannuation. Legally, respondents retired on the last working day," they stated.
The court before quashing CAT's order stated that such benefits which were available with effect from the later operative date - April 1, 1995, but wrongly granted by the tribunal to the respondents who retired with effect from the previous date, were not only undeserved and unwarranted, but also were detrimental to the state exchequer/revenue.
Source:-The Times of India
Statewide launch of e-fund management system for MGNREGA wage payments
BHUBANESWAR: Five months after launching the e-fund management system (e-FMS) in Ganjam, Gajapati and Mayurbhanj districts to speed up payment of wages to workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the state government on Thursday rolled out the service in other parts of the state.
Through e-FMS, wages will be electronically credited directly to the beneficiaries' bank accounts a day after the transaction, doing away with the erstwhile time-consuming payment system.
The use of information technology also rules out role of middlemen. Earlier, there were complaints of delay in wage payment and middlemen eating into labourers' share.
"The full-fledged introduction of e-FMS will reduce delay in payment and eliminate middlemen menace. We can monitor the payment system electronically," said secretary of Panchayati Raj department Aparajita Sarangi.
On the launch day of e-FMS, Rs 1,305,805 was credited to the accounts of a number of beneficiaries.
There are about 62 lakh MGNREGA job cardholders in Odisha. While 57% of them get their wages through banks, others get their money via Postal Department. "Those beneficiaries, having accounts in Post Offices, would soon be covered under e-FMS. We have already started the initiative but there are some problems," said state finance secretary J K Mohapatra.
The Reserve Bank of India's deputy governor H R Khan said banks have been asked to open as many ATMs in rural areas for making money-withdrawal convenient for beneficiaries.
Though the Centre had piloted e-FMS in Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Odisha in 2010, Odisha is the first to roll out the service after its successful dry run at Sheragada block in Ganjam district in 2010-11. RBI's Khan had introduced the scheme in Ganjam, Gajapati and Mayurbhanj on June 29 this year.
Source:-The Times of India
US Postal Service reports $15.9 billion annual loss
WASHINGTON: The U.S. Postal Service posted a record net loss of $15.9 billion in fiscal 2012, much of it due to massive payments the mail agency could not make but still must account for in financial statements.
That is more than triple its $5.1 billion loss last year.
The USPS, which relies on the sale of stamps and other products rather than taxpayer dollars, has been grappling for years with high costs and tumbling mail volumes as consumers communicate more online.
Postal officials have been scrambling to cut costs and boost other parts of the business, such as package delivery, but it has not been enough to staunch the losses. The USPS on Thursday repeated its call for lawmakers to quickly pass legislation overhauling the agency's business model.
"We are still walking the financial tight rope," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe told the agency's board of governors.
"Our business model is such that we cannot return to profitability without a legislative solution. We simply cannot sustain large financial losses indefinitely," he said.
Earlier this year, the Postal Service defaulted on more than $11 billion in payments that Congress had directed it to pay into a fund for future retiree health benefits. The agency also hit its $15 billion borrowing limit for the first time in 2012.
Excluding those two payments, and another for workers' compensation that the agency did make, the Postal Service would have lost $2.5 billion during the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the USPS said.
Total mail volume tumbled to 159.9 billion pieces in 2012, a 5 percent dip from 168.3 billion pieces a year ago.
While email has obliterated mail volumes, online shopping has proved a boon for the package business as the Postal Service delivers items ordered from e-Bay, Amazon.com and others. The agency said package revenue rose by $926 million, or 8.7 percent, during the year.
Operating revenue fell 0.8 percent to $65.2 billion for the year. Operating expenses, including the two retiree health payments, rose 14.7 percent to $81 billion in 2012.
"The Postal Service is facing a fiscal cliff of its own, and any unanticipated drop in mail volumes could send the agency over the edge," said Art Sackler of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, which represents business mailers.
"If Congress fails to act, there could be postal slowdowns or shutdowns that would have catastrophic consequences for the 8 million private sector workers whose jobs depend on the mail."
Postal officials want Congress to pass legislation that would allow the agency to end Saturday mail delivery and stop making the retiree health pre-payments, among other things.
Lawmakers have been working for more than a year on legislation to overhaul the Postal Service but have been unable to agree on how to do it.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill in April that would allow the agency to eventually move to five-day mail delivery and spread out the retiree health payments over more years.
Leaders in the House of Representatives have said that bill would only postpone the Postal Service's demise, not solve its problems, but they have been unable to pass a bill of their own.
Lawmakers and observers have said they hope Congress can address postal legislation during the post-election "lame duck" session, but tax and spending issues likely will consume lawmakers' attention during that period.
Source:-The Times of India
Goa University cautions about parcel
PANAJI: A possible cheating racket in the name of Goa University has the institution worried. The University has issued a press statement that said, "It is brought to our notice that mail parcels in the form of CD mailer packets containing blank CDs with a white sticker indicating 'Goa University' are being received for postal delivery in various post offices all over Goa addressed to various students and others."
The statement said that charges of 490 were levied in exchange for the parcel and cautioned people not to accept such a parcel."
Source:-The Times of India
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