Union government to change 'clerical designations' for its workforce

NEW DELHI: Designations like Lower Division Clerk  and Upper Division Clerk in central government's employee hierarchy may soon  become a thing of the past as the Centre has proposed to change their  nomenclature. 

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is considering  changing nomenclature of a few posts of Central Secretariat Clerical Service (CSCS) and Central Secretariat Service (CSS), which forms the backbone  of administrative work in the central government.

It is proposed to rename the post of Assistant in CSS as Assistant Section Officer, Similarly,the posts of Upper Division Clerk (UDC) and Lower Division Clerk (LDC) under  CSCS have been proposed to be re-christened as Senior Secretariat Assistance and  Junior Secretariat Assistance, respectively, as per the DoPT proposal. 

All concerned have been asked to send in their inputs or suggestions on the  proposal by September 18, it said. 

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

Earlier in March, it 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-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. 

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

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

India Post won't move savings accounts to its Bank

India Post has shortlisted management consultants to advise it on floating a new bank. Instead of migrating existing savings account customers to a bank, the Department of Posts is looking at floating a completely new entity which will start from scratch but leverage India Post's infrastructure by entering into service-level agreements.

The department, which has received expressions of interest from all the top global consultancy firms, including the big four, is pursuing a plan where there will be two Postbanks. The first will be the traditional financial services of the department. This includes the postal savings accounts and eight other post office savings schemes. Although not a Reserve Bank of India-recognized bank, this division, which is a bank for most practical purposes, will continue to operate in its existing form.

The second bank would be an entirely new creation with a paid-up capital in line with the Reserve Bank of India's requirement. The new entity will operate with a payments bank licence but will be manned with banking professionals recruited from the industry. The new entity will have 500-700 branches which will be housed in post office premises across the country. Despite its lean structure, the payments bank will reach out to all customers across the country by using India Post infrastructure through service-level agreements with the department.

"When it comes to financial inclusion, the post office has the capacity to be one of the most disruptive elements," said Ashvin Parekh of Ashvin Parekh Advisory Services, who has been an adviser to the department.

The department is expected to create a disruption because of its sheer reach. The infrastructure will include the 25,000 offices which are linked through leased lines, 1.3 lakh other post offices and the postmen and other employees of ?the department who will function as business correspondents.

By creating a new public sector bank, the government will overcome legal issues in converting postal savings customers into bank customers. 

"For banks, the cost of inclusion is very high. As an industry, they are spending close to Rs 12,000 crore to telecom companies as part of the last-mile reach and another Rs 6,000 crore is spent on business correspondents. As against this, banks earn around Rs 4,000 crore. By using its existing infrastructure and their feet on the street, India Post can be a disruptive method of reducing costs," said Parekh.

The department of posts mobilizes over Rs 6 lakh crore of long-term savings under the various postal savings schemes. It also has close to Rs 40,000 crore in its postal savings accounts. To modernize the operation of the traditional Postbank, the department is implementing Finacle - a core banking solution from Infosys - which will be completed by end March 2016. The department is also deploying its own ATM network and issuing its own ATM cards to the postal savings account holders. 

The only business which is likely to shift from the traditional Postbank to the new payments bank would be that of remittance. It is expected that the payments bank would be able to handle cash remittances much better than the post office and transfer cash within hours. This will enable the department to grow the business several fold.

Drawal of Allowances for the substitutes / Outsiders in the place of regular GDS

PAYMENT OF WEEKLY OFF TO GDS WHO ACTED IN POSTMAN, MTS POSTS

MODEL TABLE SHOWING THE MINIMUM PENSION DUE TO PRE-2006 PENSIONERS FROM 1.1.2006

MINIMUM PENSION TO BE FIXED TO  DEFERENT CADRES WHO RETIRED 

BEFORE 1-1-2006 as per section -2 of gazette notification dt. 29^th august 2008

S.NO				CADRE		MINIMUM PAY IN PAY BAND		GRADE PAY		TOTAL		ELIGIBLE MINIMUM PENSION
1				MTS		5200		1800		7000		3500
2				POST MAN,MG		6460		2000		8460		4230
3				TBOP PM,MG&PA,SA		7510		2400		9910		4955
4				BCR PM,MG& TBOP,LSG PA,SA		8560		2800		11360		5680
5				BCR,HSGII PA,SA		9300		4200		13500		6750
6				HSG I PA,SA		12450		4600		17140		8570
7						13750		4800		18150		9075
8						15600		5400		21000		10500
s.no					gradepay		Minimum pay In pay band		total		Minimum pension to be fixed
9					6600		18750		25350		12675
10					7600		21900		29500		14750
11					8700		37400		46100		23050
12					8900		40200		49100		24550
13					10000		43000		53000		26500

Honourable Finance Minister Shri.Arun Jaitely had spoken about the possible impact of 7th CPC recommendations in Parliament.

The Speech is critically reviewed by Comrade Elangovan of DREU.

I am reproducing the comments of Comrade Elangovan for the consideration of our members: 

  

7^TH CPC WIL INCREASE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PAY ONLY BY 15%.

SHOULD WE ACCEPT?

 R.ELANGOVAN,

WORKING PRESIDENT, DREU

 1.     The Medium Term Expenditure Framework statement has not yet been uploaded in Finance Ministry’s website. However I have taken the figures provided by print media including The Hindu. As per their statement the expenditure on salaries will rise by 9.56% in the fiscal 2015-16 as a result of 7^th CPC implementation over the normal estimated expenditure in the 2015-16 budget to Rs.100619 crores. This means that the expenditure projected was Rs.91,839cr which if increased by 9.56% becomes Rs.100619 crores.

2.     While going through the earlier framework statements I have come to the conclusion that the ‘salaries’ shown is pay with normal increments plus DA projected.

3.     As per the estimated strength and provision there of statement laid as part of finance budget, the normal projection as PAY was Rs.60731 cr and so DA is Rs 31,108 as deducted from Rs 91 839 cr. The budget document does not give the DA expenditure separately. It gives the total expenditure on all allowances. I have therefore arrived at the figure based on calculations. However I have sought the expenditure on DA, HRA, and Transport Allowance separately through RTI.

4.     The increase proposed is Rs.100619 cr from Rs.91,839cr  which means that there will be an increase of Rs.8780 cr. There won’t be any DA after 1-1-2016 up to 31-3-2016 in the fiscal 2015-16.Therefore the whole increase is on basic pay in this fiscal.

5.     As we have already seen that the basic pay is Rs.60731 cr. the increase of Rs.8780 cr. is over this Rs.60731.This increase is 14.45% only. The expenditure projected for 2016-17 is Rs.1,12,000cr which is Rs.11,400 more over 2015-16 which works out to 11.32%. This is due to Increment, DA,HRA, TRA etc. The projection for 2017-18 is 1,16,000 cr.

6.     If 40%  of Basic Pay is to be given, the increase of expenditure in the fiscal 2015-16  must  be Rs. 24000 cr as against the Rs. 8780 cr. The demand of JCM Staff side is that there must be an increase of 371% of basic pay as on 1-1-2016. With the 119% DA we would be drawing 219% already. The real increase demanded is 152% of Basic Pay. So not the 152% or 40% of 5^th and 6^th CPC is intended to be given to us. Only around 15% is going to be given. As The Terms Of Reference of 7^TH CPC directs them to recommend only what is‘FEASIBLE AND DESIRABLE’to the Government. Now the Government In Parliament states only 15% is FEASIBLE AND DESIRABLE. ARE WE TO ACCEPT IT.? Some PSUs got 15%. But that is for 5 years. But for Central Government Employees it is for Ten Years. Are We To Accept?

7.     Pension expenditure for civilian pensioners was estimated to be Rs.27,145cr and defence pension Rs.54,500 cr. The total is Rs.81645 cr. This is expected to go up to Rs.88521 cr, which is an increase of Rs.6876 cr.As there will be no Dearness Relief for the fiscal 2015-16 the increase is to be accounted only to Basic Pension.

8.     I have sought the expenditure break up for dearness relief under RTI. However the rough calculation shows a near increase of same 15% in Pension.

9.     The impact of 6^th CPC on expenditure as per estimated strength of establishment and provision thereof in respect of Central Government civilian employees was as follows:

ARREARS Rs 26084 cr.  For three  years mostly on Pay and DA regular PAY Increase per annum:   Rs 8685 cr. These are actual figures. The 219% of Rs. 8685 cr is  Rs.19000 cr. EVEN THIS IS NOT GIVEN.

10. We must issue a warning to the government afresh demanding acceptance of our demand. I recall my earlier note wherein I had quoted BibekDebroy’s report that the 7^th CPC will not be that destabilising to the Government as that of 6^th CPC. GOVERNMENT PROVES THAT.

Courtesy : http://postalpensioners.blogspot.in/