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Saturday, June 30, 2012

High-handedness of outside authorities on India Post and its employees – Protest regarding.


Dear Comrades,
With arrest of one official of Utkal University MDG on 23.06.2012 by RPF, Bhubaneswar on alleged malpractice of Tatkal railway tickets in the PRS counter, this Division has now faced two such incidents continuously, first being the case of BJB Nagar S O issue of the high-handedness of outside authorities on India Post and its employees. It is much regretted to say that without prior sanction of our competent authority, outside authorities are in practice of entering our premises/offices and taking our officials to their custody.
Under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, it is necessary for the prosecuting authority to have the previous sanction of the appropriate administrative authority for launching prosecution against a public servant. The sanction for prosecution of any person, who is or was a Judge or Magistrate or a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the Government, is also necessary, under section 197(1) of the code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, if he is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of official duty.
Sub-section (2) of section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 further provides that where for any reason whatsoever any doubt arises as to whose previous sanction should be obtained under sub-section (1), the sanction shall be given by the authority which would have been competent to remove the public servant from his office at the time when the offence was alleged to have been committed.
If the prior sanction of the competent authority is not obtained, the trial would be ab initio void and if commenced will have to be set aside. A fresh prosecution would be necessary after a proper sanction has been obtained and a charge-sheet against the accused will need to be filed afresh for his trial for offence covered by the sanction.
But we are sorry to note that in both the incidents happened in Bhubaneswar Division, we find serious violation of the above acts and rules ( enunciated in Chapter VII of Vigilance Manual) by the outside authorities taking our officials into task. We apprehend, this may be a trend in future that any outside authority with whom the Department has made an agreement to run the former’s business through the vast network of India Post may at any time rush to any post office and behave with the staff members at his sweet will neither informing our authorities nor obtaining prior sanction as required under rules. Time will come when SBI, NABARAD, HDFC Bank, WUFC, HMT, Life Insurance and Mutual Fund companies etc. whose products and services are handled by India Post will raid post offices and handover our employees to police custody. Thus, the security of the staff members has now been a question in India Post.
With serious resentment on such deliberate violation of the agreement between India Post and Indian Railway by the RPF, Bhubaneswar and violation to above acts / rules, we have registered our reaction before the Divisional administration and requested our Circle Union and CHQ for similar actions before appropriate authorities. While the actions taken by our Circle Union and CHQ are not known to us, we are happy that our Divisional administration has taken a strong step in protesting such irregular action of the railway authorities. With sincere thanks to the SSPOs, Bhubaneswar, we would like to reproduce Divisional Office letter written to DRM, ECoR, Khurda Road Division.
Government of India
Department of Posts
Office of the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices
Bhubaneswar Division, Bhubaneswar-751009
 No. F-VII/98/2012,                                                                                                                 Dated at Bhubaneswar the 25.06.2012
 To
            The Divisional Railway Manager
            East Coast Railway, Khurda Road Division
            At/Po : Jatani, Dist : Khurda
Sub :    Prosecution of Sri Malay Ranjan Pati, Postal Asst., Utkal University MDG on alleged malpractice in PRS counter on 23.06.2012.
Sir,
            I would like to bring your kind notice that the India Post PRS counter (computerized passenger reservation system) was opened at Utkal University Mukhya Dak Ghar, Bhubaneswar with an agreement signed on 4th January, 2011 by the senior officers of both the Department of Indian Railways and India Post. Accordingly, Sri Malay Ranjan Pati, Postal Asst., Utkal University MDG was entrusted the duty of PRS counter as being imparted with necessary training for the same.
                On 23.06.2012, a joint team consisting of CIB / RPF / KUR and RPF Post, Bhubaneswar raided the Utkal University MDG at about 08.00 AM and finding some irregularity at the PRS counter, they took the Postal Asst. Sri Pati into their custody and arrested him under section 179 of Railway Act. Due to arrest and taking into custody of the Postal Asst., the Post Office has suffered a lot in fulfilling the need of the customers of the Department since Sri Pati was assigned with other Postal work in addition to the duty of PRS. The team also did not feel to intimate the situation on the very day of incident to the undersigned, who is the competent authority of the alleged official.   It is reliably learnt that the RPF had earlier attempted two times to nab the official, but had failed due to insufficient evidence. Now the question is, if the RPF authority could have gathered so much information about malpractice at PRS counter, Utkal University MDG, they must have apprised their higher authority and since the system of PRS is a joint venture by both the Department, then the Railway authority would have no hesitation to intimate the fact to the higher authority of the Department of Posts or to the undersigned so that a remedial / preventive action could have been taken much earlier by this Department for eliminating the present situation. Even before arresting the official and taking him into custody the undersigned was not informed and kept in darkness of the entire scenario. Prior arrangement to manage the work of the absentee could not be made also. Due to such motivated action of the RPF authority without giving prior information and without taking the Postal authorities into confidence, the department not only loose its image before the public but also put into the crisis of shortage of staff to manage the PRS counter and the postal business attached to the branch. Now as per the rule of the govt. the official may be put into suspension causing unnecessary payment of subsistence allowance without extracting any work from him. Therefore, was it not wise to inform the authorities of the Dept of posts about the matter when it came to the notice of the RPF/Railway authorities before taking the recourse of arresting the official with proof. Had this been done the unwarranted situation like this could have been averted by not putting any harm to both the departments. By such action of the RPF/Railway authority, the very provisions made in Para – 16.5 of agreement on PRS at Utkal University Mukhya Dak Ghar signed by both the Department on 4th January, 2011 is violated.
 Therefore, it is requested to take stock of the situation and issue appropriate instruction to the concerned authorities as deemed proper at the earliest.
                       
Yours faithfully

(A.K.Nayak)
Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices
Bhubaneswar   Division
Bhubaneswar-751009
Copy to :
1.         Senior Divisional Security Commandant (RPF), East Coast Railway, Khurda Road Division, At/Po : Jatani, Dist : Khurda for favour of kind information and immediate necessary action.
2.         The Asst. Postmaster General (Vig), O/o the Chief Postmaster General, Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar-751001 for information and necessary action.
3.         The Asst. Director (BD), O/o the Chief Postmaster General, Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar-751001 for information and necessary action.
(A.K.Nayak)
Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices
Bhubaneswar   Division
Bhubaneswar-751009

Amendment in Tatkal Scheme

With a view to further improve the delivery of Tatkal tickets to passengers, the Ministry of Railways has decided that with effect from 10.07.2012 booking of Tatkal ticket will start at 1000 hours on the previous day of journey from train originating station instead of 0800 hours at present.

No authorised agents, including agents of IRCTC and RTSAs/RTAs will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from 1000 hours to 1200 hours. The existing restriction of not allowing these agents booking of general tickets on the opening day from 0800 hours to 1000 hours will also continue. 
Source : PIB, June 29, 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

Displeased with postal sector, Kapil Sibal calls for reforms

New Delhi, Jun 28, 2012 (PTI)
A review meeting of the entire Indian postal sector, chaired by Minister of Communications and IT Kapil Sibal, has found it lagging behind its peers in other parts of the world and called for immediate reforms.
Sibal was displeased with the unorganised nature of Indian postal sector in general, its low contribution to GDP and under-utilised potential to generate employment. According to ministry sources, Sibal on the basis of cross country data presented to him remarked that "Indian Postal Sector is unorganised and grossly undeveloped. In absence of a forward looking policy framework, the Postal Sector in India has failed to keep with global development".

The meeting was held in connection with finalisation of the draft cabinet note for the first detailed National Postal Policy. The data presented in the meeting suggested that global postal services is likely to reach USD 331 billion by 201.

This, however, did not incorporate the current status or contribution of Indian postal sector due to non-availability of authentic data. The officials told Sibal that postal sector in some European countries' contributed between 0.6-0.9 per cent to their GDP but the contribution of estimated Rs 15,000 crore Indian Postal sector is much lower.
In terms of employment generation, postal sector of France accounts for 1 per cent of total employment.

As many as 27 postal service providers in European Union account for 0.5 per cent of the region's total employment whereas it stood at around 0.6 million people out of 1.2 billion population in India.

"Postal sector urgently requires legislative, institutional and governance reforms," Sibal said. He also asked the postal department to make provision for uniform quality standards of services and grievance redressal mechanism at par with global best practices in the policy.
Source :  http://www.deccanherald.com

Family can receive your driving licence

Mumbai: You need not be present at your residence to accept your driving licence dispatched by speed post. The RTO has instructed the postal department to deliver licences to any other person who is present at your residence, be it your parents, spouse or siblings.

T P Chavan, assistant RTO (Wadala), said, "In the past, we insisted that postmen check whether the applicant stays at the residence and then get his signature. But now we have relaxed the rules. The postman should write on the acknowledgment slip that the licence has been delivered to a family member and take the person's signature."

Some residents, though, complained to TOI that postmen have refused to deliver licences if the applicant is not home. A senior citizen said, "My son was away at work and the postman refused to hand over the licence to me. He insisted that the applicant sign the acknowledgment slip or visit the post office within four days to collect the licence." Chavan said the postman must merely ascertain whether the person in whose name the licence is issued lives there. "The applicant's presence is not mandatory."

Sources said in the recent past, some postal staffers have demanded money in the form of "bakshish" to deliver licences. In case an applicant fails to collect the licence from the post in four days, he has to go through the rigmarole of visiting the RTO to give an explanation before collecting it. Abha Singh, director of postal services (Maharashtra & Goa circle), said, "I have not received any complaints against postal staff for demanding money or harassing citizens. If there's any specific case, citizens can contact me in confidence... The job of the postman is to verify the address." 
Source :http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Plan to open 40 more passport offices soon: SM Krishna

NEW DELHI: The TOI campaign against the bottlenecks in the passport system - which has already led to reforms over the past week - brought the minister of external affairs, S M Krishna, to the PSK at ITO on Monday for a reality check. He announced fresh reforms, including a proposal to open 40 more passport offices, some of which will be implemented immediately and the rest after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

In an exclusive briefing to TOI, Krishna said since the first 'Passport Mela' was a success, it has been decided to hold one this weekend too. Officials hope over 20,000 applications will be processed on Saturday and Sunday. In fact, the Mela will become a regular feature.

"Every month we are receiving more applications and that has added to the workload. Our resources are, however, limited and therefore the delay in processing them. A proposal to set up 40 additional passport offices across the country will be tabled in Friday's cabinet meeting," Krishna said.
 
 These new offices will come up in areas that have a monthly demand of 20,000-25,000 passports.

When people at the PSK shared their tales of woes with the minister, he said there were "teething troubles" as the system was still new and officials were gradually getting used to it. "There are hiccups since the online procedure is new. Eventually, these problems will be sorted out," Krishna said.

As an immediate measure to tackle the problem of online appointments, the ministry has decided to dedicate one passport office in each city to handle walk-in appointments. "In Delhi, the regional passport office at Bhikaji Cama Place will offer both normal and Tatkaal services to 200 applicants daily; in Bangalore, it will be the RPO at Koramangla," said Raghavendra Shastry, adviser to the minister.

The ministry has also roped in the postal department to weed out touts and middlemen. "Our focus is to simplify the system and make it citizen-friendly. It is very important to eliminate intermediaries as they complicate the system. We have asked 350 post offices to help applicants with no access to the internet fill up and submit forms. They will employ ex-servicemen for this, who will charge a nominal fee of Rs 100 per application," said Krishna.

Senior MEA officials, who accompanied the minister, said police verification of applicants has emerged as a grey area. "We are, therefore, starting a pilot project in Karnataka where all police stations will be linked to the passport seva project. The moment a granting officer processes one application, a copy will be wired to the respective police station. From that point, cops will have seven working days to verify and send back their report. So far, cops have been found to delay the verification process on some pretext or the other. The system will now track their response timings, too," said Shastry.

The minister will write to chief ministers of all states on Tuesday to strictly implement the new rules. 
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Railways plan dedicated counters for tatkal tickets

NEW DELHI: Faced with mounting complaints of misuse of tatkal scheme, Railways are planning to have dedicated counters and separate time slots for selling tatkal tickets.

Plans are afoot to install CCTV cameras at the ticket counters to keep a close watch on tatkal ticket seekers and making e-reservation more fool-proof.

"Besides, we have decided to bar booking clerks from carrying mobile to reservation counters," said Northern Railway General Manager V K Gupta, while other officers said the "character of the tatkal scheme will be changed".

Talking to reporters here, Gupta said separate counters and time slots for tatkal reservation would also be put in place very soon to prevent touts from misusing the scheme.

His comments come a day after the Railway Board reviewed the tatkal scheme, which was introduced to help passengers travelling on emergency. However, there have been increased complaints that passengers have been unable to exploit the scheme properly, thanks to the role of touts.

Despite a number of changes carried out in the scheme in the recent past including reducing the days for reserving tatkal tickets from five to only one day and barring web-based agents from booking tickets during the first hours, touts continued to exploit the scheme, selling tatkal tickets at a premium.

At present, tatkal scheme is available in around 2677 trains which translates to around 1.71 lakh berths. In 2011-12, earning from the scheme stood at Rs 847 crore. 
Source :  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958 - Rule 16(3) — Guidelines for intensive review of records.

To view DoP&T's  complete order No. 25013/02/2005-AIS II, dated 28th June, 2012, please click here.

Up-coming programmes by NFPE / Confederation / AIPEU-GDS (NFPE).

The following programmes are gearing up in full swing by NFPE / Confederation /  AIPEU-GDS (NFPE).
It is appealed to one and all for making the programmes a historic success.
Programme by Confederation
MARCH TO PARLIAMENT BY CENTRAL GOVT. EMPLOYEES ON 26th JULY,2012
Programme by NFPE
NFPE ALL INDIA CONVENTION
ON 26th JULY,2012
Programme by AIPEU-GDS(NFPE)
DHARNA  IN FRONT
OF  PARLIAMENT
ON 27th  JULY, 2012






Workshop for Direct Agents/Sales force- Submission of information.

               A workshop for Direct Agents and other Sales force including GDS/DEs is proposed to be held on 07.07.2012(Saturday)at 11.00 hours at Khurda HO premises under Puri Division. The Chief PMG(O), Bhubaneswar will inaugurate the workshop.
Resource Persons
1.       DDM(PLI)
2.       Divl. Heads of Bhubaneswar, Puri with their ASP(Hqrs) & ASP(OD)
3.       Invitee, if any.
Participants
1.         All Sub-Divl. Heads IP/ASP of respective Divisions
2.         Direct Agents nominated by above Divl. Heads at least best 5 per division who have brought highest business to the Division
3.         All PAs working in HOs trained in marketing of PLI/RPLI on 07.05.2012 of respective Divisions and OAs working in PLI/RPLI section of Division Office
4.         Best of five GDS from each Division who have brought highest business last year
5.         All DOs of the Circle
Course content of workshop
1.         Direct Agents & their Roll in PLI/RPLI business
2.         Marketing skill
3.         Incentive structure
4.         Analysis of business made by Direct Agents/sales force in Division
5.         Review of after sales service by the Division
6.         MIU implementation in Divisions

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Important SMS from Com. M Krishnan, Secretary General, NFPE on verification of vacancy position in each Division.


Discussed with CPMG. No post will be abolished. Screening Committee vacancies  for the year 2006, 2007 and 2008 will be correctly identified  and kept vacant. ( These posts will not be filled up  and are to be abolished as per DoP&T Orders) . All vacant posts for 2009 and 2010 already filled up. Orders for filling up of vacant posts of 2011 and 2012 will be issued shortly by the Directorate. Process of calculation of circle-wise vacancy position already started. any doubt – contact me over phone. CPMG has told that there are serious irregularities in previous vacancy calculation in some Divisions. That will be set right.

Central Working Committee Meeting of AIPEU, Gr.-C, CHQ held in Vellore from 23rd to 24th June 2012


CWC approved Com. R. Sivannarayana Dy. General Secretary as Officiating General Secretary till next All India Conference
 The Central Working Committee Meeting of AIPEU Gr. C has been conducted successfully from 23rd to 24th   June, 2012 at  S.K.M. Hall, Vellore (Tamil Nadu ).
The meeting was presided by Com. M.Krishnan, President, CHQ and Com. B.G.Thamhankar (Former President, NFPE) inaugurated the session. Com. K.Raghavendran, Working President, CCGE&W, Com. K.V.Sridharan, General Secretary, AIPEU Gr. C.,  Com. T. Satyanarayana, General Secretary, AIPAEA - Com. Pranab Bhattacharya, General Secretary, AIPAOEU - Com. P. Suresh, General Secretary, R-IV, Com. Appanraj, General Secretary, AIPSBCOEA,  Com. N. Raghupathi, AGS, NFPE, Com. P. Pandurangarao, General Secretary, AIPEU-GDS (NFPE) , Com. Y. Nagabhushanam, Working President, AIPCPCCWF, Com. Goppu Govindarajan, AGS, P-IV CHQ, Com. Sukumar, AGS, R-III had  also attended and addressed the session.
Women Committee members Com. Nanda Sen (West Bengal) Com. Mousami Majumdar (Assam), Com. Pushpeswaridevi (AP), Com. Manimekhalai (TN) has also participated in the CWC..
A prolonged discussion was taken on the agenda items and Com. K.V. Sridharan explained  the efforts made by CHQ to solve the problems in the recent past. All most all CWC members assured their assistance and cooperation to the newly formed AIPEU-GDS(NFPE).
Com. K. V. Sridharan was felicitated by the Comrades of Vellore in a traditional way. The CWC approved Com. R. Sivannarayana Dy. General Secretary as Officiating General Secretary till next All India Conference and Com. K. V.Sridharan  was requested to continue his services for the CHQ till next All India Conference.
The session concluded with vote of thanks by Com. R. Sivannarayana, Officiating General Secretary, CHQ in a befitting manner.   The Comrades of Vellore headed by Com. Veeran made excellent arrangements  for the delegates, invitees and visitors which was appreciated by one and all.