Retirement on superannuation.

Com. Laxminarayan Acharya, PA, Bhubaneswar GPO retired on 31.05.2015 on attaining the age of superannuation. 

The AIPEU, Group-C, Bhubaneswar Division  wishes Com. Acharya a happy and healthy retired life.

Maximising the post office

“India Post can play a big role in the fulfilment of the government’s social objectives.” Picture shows a pensioner leaving a post office in Byalahalli village, Karnataka. Photo: By Special Arrangement 

  

Instead of hamstringing public sector banks with social schemes, it is time to transfer many of these financial tasks to India Post.

 

Public sector bank employees are so overwhelmed by the sheer number of government-sponsored schemes they are saddled with, that they have begun to come up with parodies. One such spoof scheme is what they have named the Pradhan Mantri Sishu Palan Yojana, where customers with SB accounts can leave their children with the bank manager for babysitting services at a nominal cost. 

This might be just a joke, but it does reflect the deep frustration among bankers at being mandated to carry out an enormous number of the government’s social objectives.

There has been a lot of commentary asking the government to reduce its involvement in Public Sector Banks (PSBs). The government has been asked to reduce holdings, step away from appointments of chairmen and board of directors, and to not interfere in bank schemes such as the farm loan waiver or mandatory priority sector lending, But nobody is talking about the government using PSBs to roll out its various populist schemes, which will affect their day-to-day operations in the short run, and its overall competitiveness in the long run.

A quick search will reveal that the number of government social schemes that use PSBs is uncomfortably high. The schemes cover a range of areas such as insurance (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, etc), pension (Atal Pension Yojana), financial inclusion (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana), and priority sector lending, which includes various schemes under agriculture, micro and small enterprises, education, housing, export credit and others. 

Ambitious targets

 

Each scheme usually comes with countrywide targets set by the concerned ministry, which are then distilled and divided into smaller numbers for each bank branch. For example, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has an ambitious target of opening 10 crore accounts, to be divided among the banks. One PSB was assigned a target of 1 crore accounts and one of its branches in Bengaluru had a target of 1,000 accounts to be opened within a week. Such targets are rarely met, and even if they are, they rarely match the desired outcomes, due to complete misalignment of incentives. With a severe dilution of Know Your Customer norms, there is enough evidence about the actual success of the scheme — 75 per cent of the accounts are empty, multiple accounts have been opened by single persons, and there are huge costs that the banks bear (Rs. 200 per bank account). 

But what is perhaps the biggest cost to banks is the opportunity cost they lose in implementing these schemes. Ambitious targets and time frames take up precious time that could have otherwise been used to carry out the original mandate of the banks — accept deposits and make loans. All normal bank activity comes to a standstill during such public drives, with employees being swamped by the targets. Even big business clients are asked to wait until the pressure eases. The PMJDY drive halted all normal banking activities for an entire week.

At a time when public sector banks are finding it hard to beat the competition posed by deep-pocketed foreign and private sector banks, they can ill afford to let their biggest customers take a back seat while they meet social goals. 

Relevance of India Post

 

However, since social security measures are important, how about using another government-run behemoth, India Posts, for this task? As it struggles to find relevance in the digital age, perhaps the answer lies in reusing its enormous reach for delivering social schemes. In the U.S., this idea is being examined, and the U.S. Postal Service presented a report this month outlining exactly how postal banking could promote financial inclusion while turning in a neat profit for the service. 

Two criteria have to be considered: reach and capability. India Post has a network of over 1.5 lakh branches across India, a reach that far exceeds all the PSBs combined. Of the 1.5 lakh branches, about 1.4 are in rural areas, compared to the combined 23,000 rural branches of the public sector banks.

India Post already runs the Post Office Savings Bank account, which handles cash worth Rs 6 lakh crore per year across 28 crore accounts. The service has also been quite successfully handling cash payments in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — nearly 5.6 crore MGNREGA accounts, and wages amounting to nearly Rs. 10,000 crore have been disbursed to beneficiaries through 97,709 post offices across the country. Of the three main building blocks of financial inclusion — cash storage, disbursing payments, and giving credit — India Post has already shown that it is quite capable of handling the first two.

In the longer run, for India Post to play a bigger role in the fulfilment of the government’s social objectives, the following steps can be taken: First, one of the smaller and healthier PSBs could be merged with Indian Post so that the latter acquires a banking licence and a trained workforce. Second, incentives could be offered to the present workforce to sit for the banking exams. Third, banking exams could be made a requirement for a percentage of the new recruits; and, finally, the banking division of the post office could be brought under the RBI’s regulatory purview. 

With this, India Post can expand from financial inclusion to handling insurance and pension accounts, priority sector lending in rural areas, and many other financial functions as well. 

Some post offices around the world have undergone this transformation quite successfully. The Royal Mail of the U.K., for example, does all the things a bank does and additionally even provides telephone and broadband service. 

This move could free public sector banks from being yoked to social sector objectives and allow them to become competitive and function freely in the highly cut-throat banking sector. Simultaneously, it could harness the potential of the post office network in India.

Source :  http://www.thehindu.com

 

Govt upgrades 29 cities, towns for higher HRA, transport allowance

• PTI, New Delhi, Updated: May 30, 2015 17:15 IST
•  
• The Union cabinet on Saturday approved upgradation of 29 cities and towns on the basis of 2011 population census for providing higher house and transportation allowance to central government employees.    
• 
  The revised classification of cities would be effective from April 1, 2014 and cost the exchequer approximately Rs 128 crore for 2014-15. 
  
  "The cabinet has approved reclassification/upgradation of certain cities/towns on the basis of Census 2011 for the purpose of granting House Rent Allowance (HRA) and Transport Allowance to central government employees," communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in New Delhi. 
  
  One the basis of the census, 2 cities - Pune and Ahmedabad - have been upgraded to 'X' class from 'Y' and 21 cities to 'Y' from 'Z' for the purpose of HRA, an official statement read. 
  
  These 21 cities are Nellore, Gurgaon, Bokaro Steel City, Gulbarga, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kannur, Kollam, Ujjain, Vasai-Virar City, Malegaon, Nanded-Waghala, Sangli, Rourkela, Ajmer, Erode, Noida, Firozabad, Jhansi, Siliguri and Durgapur. 
  
  That apart, six - Patna, Kochi, Indore, Coimbatore and Ghaziabad - have been advanced to 'Specified Higher Class' from 'Other Places' for the purpose of transport allowance, the statement said. 
  
  So far, the Census 2001 has been used for deciding the HRA and transport allowance of central government officials posted in these towns and cities. 
  
  The existing qualifying threshold of population for HRA classification is 50 lakh and above for X, 5-50 lakh for Y and below 5 lakh for Z class cities.
  
  Transportation allowance is payable at 'higher rates' in 13 specified cities classified earlier as 'A-1' and 'A' (those with a population of 20 lakh and above) and 'lower rates' for the rest. 
  
  The cities and towns are classified as X, Y and Z for the purpose of HRA and 13 specified cities classified as A-1, A and Other Places for transportation allowance.
   
• Source :  http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Discussion in the National Anomaly committee meeting.

Dear Comrades,

Sub:     Discussion in the National Anomaly committee meeting.

The meeting of the National Anomaly Committee was held today at Room No. 72 , North Block.  Mrs. Mamatha Kundra, JS(E) Department of Personnel and Training chaired the meeting.  The Staff side was represented by:

1.      Com. M. Raghavaiah, Leader Staff Side, 2 Com.Shiv Gopal Mishra, Secretary, 3. Com. Bhosale (AiRF) .4. Com. Guman Singh(NFIR), 5. Com. K.K.N. Kutty(Confederation), Com. M.S. Raja ( Audit), Com. Srikumar (AIDEF)

The following issues alone were taken up for discussion at the meeting.  The next meeting of the NAC will be held on 9^th June, 2015afternnon, when the un-discussed items (12) of the agenda will be taken up.  The Staff side also pointed out the need to reach finality on all issues included in the agenda of NAC.

Item No.1. Review of MACP where Grade Pay of Rs. 2000/- is not available like Railways: The official side stated that the demand was to bring the hierarchy based MACP which may not be acceptable as it would disturb the uniformity across the Departments. They also said that in the background of 7^th CPC coming into being, no change in the scheme at this stage would be desirable.

Item No. 2. Grant of Addl. Pay to Loco and Traffic running Staff in Railways.   After some discussions, it was agreed that the DOE will cause a reconsideration of the issue.

Item No. 3. MACP for personnel appointed under LDCE and GBDCE scheme in Railways. The official side agreed that under the ACP if the appointees under LCDE and GDCE have been treated as direct recruitment, the same might be treated in the same manner under MACP.

Item No. 4. Grant of minimum entry pay meant for direct recruits to promotees.   The official side stated that unless logically it is established that the proposed stepping up is needed, the direction of the FM in the matter cannot be got reversed. There was serious discussion in the matter thereafter.  The Staff side stated that the RPA rules promulgated after the 6^th CPC recommendations were not in conformity with the Fundamental Rules on this issue.  They also stated that having once agreed to a position; the official side cannot withdraw there-from under the JCM Scheme.  They also stated that the course open to the official side was to present the case before the new Finance Minister.    On behalf of the Staff Side, the Secretary informed the official side that a rejection of an issue on which agreement is reached will not be taking lying down by the employees.  The Staff side also demanded that a meeting with the new Finance Minister be arranged so that they will be able to place this issue before his consideration.

With greetings,

Yours fraternally,

M. Krishnan

Secretary General

Stamp issued on Indian Postal Heritage Buildings

List of Heritage Buildings owned by India Post 

Circle	Name of Heritage Building
Bihar	Patna General Post Office, Bhagalpur Head Post Office, Postal Training Centre Darbhanga
Delhi	New Delhi General Post Office,  Delhi General Post Office
Himachal Pradesh	Mandi Head Post Office, Chhotta Shimla, Shimla General Post Office, Ambedkar Chowk  Post Office, Kasauli Post Office.
Maharashtra	Mumbai  General  Post  Office,  Nagpur  General  Post  Office,  Director Accounts  Postal  Nagpur, Pune General Post Office, Panaji Head Post Office.
Punjab	Amritsar Head Post Office.
Karnataka	Postal Training Centre in Mysore, Divisional Office Bellary, Circle Office in Bangalore.
Kerala	Circle Office in Trivandrum.
Tamilnadu	Chennai General Post Office, Udhagamandalam Head Post Office, Nagapattinam Head Post Office.
Uttar Pradesh	Varanasi City  Post Office, Varanasi Head Post Office, Lucknow General Post Office,  Circle Office in Lucknow, Agra Head Post Office.
West Bengal	Return Letter Office in Kolkata, Darjeeling Head Post Office, Cooch Behar Post Office, Kolkata General Post Office, Baruipur Head Post Office,  Behrampur  Head Post Office, Alipore Head  Post Office, Diamond Harbour Head Post Office, Mud Point Post Office, Khejoori Post Office.

Grant of Special C L to delegates of Bhubaneswar Division to attend 30th AIC at Lucknow

Department of Posts, India

Office of the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division, Bhubaneswar-751009 

No.   B-9/Genl,                                                              Dated at Bhubaneswar the 27.05.15. 

In pursuance of the approval of the competent authority conveyed vide C.O. Memo No. WL/21-8/2013 dated 15.05.15, the following officials has been granted Special CL to attend All India Conference of AIPEU Gr C to be held at Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Biswa Vidyalata, Vidya Vihar, Rayabarelli  Road, Lucknow, UP from 02.06.15 to 09.06.15. 

Sl. No	Name of the Union representatives who will attend the above meeting	Relieving arrangement
1	Sri Bruhaspati Samal Postmaster , Ashoknagar MDG	The official will be relieved on office arrangement
2	Sri Anil Ku Mohanty SPM, AG SO	-do-
3	Sri Lingaraj Sahoo Supervisor CPC, Bhubaneswar	Necessary arrangement may be made by C.O.(AD (PMU) )
4	Sri Daitary Mohapatra Treasurer, Bhubaneswar GPO	The Sr. Postmaster, BBSR GPO will make necessary relieving arrangement
5	Sri Dipti Ranjan Mohanty PA, Bhubaneswar GPO	- do-
6	Sri Nihar Ranjan Pattanaik PRI(P), BBSR GPO	-do-
7	Sri Sukhlal Tudu PA, Ashoknagar MDG	The official will be relieved on office arrangement
8	Sri Laxmidhar Rout SPM, Rajbhawan SO	The Postmaster, BJB Nagar  SO will depute Ms Sasmita Sahoo-II on to relieve Sri Rout in time
9	Ms Nandita Mohanty OA, O/o the SSPOs, BBSR Division	The official will be relieved on office arrangement
10	Sri Sunil Mishra PA, Bhubaneswar GPO	The Sr. Postmaster, BBSR GPO will make necessary relieving arrangement

  

Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division

Bhubaneswar-751009

Copy for information & necessary action to: 

1.              The AD (Welfare), O/o the Chief PMG (Odisha), for information w.r.t C.O letter No. WL/21-8/2013 dated 15.05.15.

2.             The AD (PMU), O/o the Chief PMG (Odisha), for information.  Necessary arrangement may be made for timely relief of Sri Lingaraj Sahoo.

3.             The Sr. Postmaster, Bhubaneswar GPO for necessary action.

4.             The ASP (Hqr), BBSR Division.

5.              The Divnl. Secy. AIPEU(Gr-C) Union.

6.             The Postmaster, Ashoknagar MDG.

7.     The Postmaster, BJB Nagar  SO. He will depute Ms Sasmita Sahoo-II to relieve Sri L.D Rout BY 29.05.15 afternoon  positively.

8.             The officials / Union representatives concerned.

9.             Office copy 

Digital Locker – 1,00,000 Mark in 100 Days

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
28-May-2015 18:04 IST

Digital Locker – 1,00,000 Mark in 100 Days

After Digital Locker trial version was launched in Feb, 2015 over 1,00,000 Digital Lockers have been opened by the Citizens, within 100 days of its launch representing the trust, benefit and convenience offered by the Digital Locker to a common man. 

Digital Locker is one of the key initiatives under the Digital India vision, which is aimed at eliminating the usage of physical documents. Digital Locker will allow various agencies to push the documents into the Digital Locker of citizens mapped to their Aadhaar Number. It also allows citizens to upload their own electronic documents with or without digitally signing them using the e-sign facility allowing them to store all such documents for posterity. The Digital Locker system has the following advantages:

a)      Print anytime from anywhere – All electronic documents will be in a printable, enabling user to print from anywhere. Also, incase of disasters, non availability of documents, it is easily accessible by user even when the documents are lost

b)      Convenience – No more long queues or procedures to get the documents.

c)      Free of cost – Digital Locker facility is provided to Indian Citizen free of charge and will enable its use by lower strata of society.

d)      Shareable – residents can easily share the documents with other agencies/departments without having to share photocopies, scan copies, document uploads, etc. Sharing can easily be done even on feature phones even via SMS and text based systems.

e)       Verifiable  – most  importantly,  government  documents  and  certificates  issued can be verified online, eliminating  the  use  of fake  documents/certificates.

f)       Secure - Only the owner has the right to see and share the documents as per their own requirement and convenience.

Few other benefits envisaged by users are

a)      A number of individual certificates such as Birth, Domicile, etc., may be applied online to speed up the process. The user agencies will be authorised to access the documents by the owner of digital locker. Also, the local bodies issuing these documents can push these certificates in digital form directly in the Digital Locker eliminating the risk of fake document. This will greatly benefit the people who find it difficult to have proper storage space for physical documents. This would be safe during the National Disaster such as floods, cyclones, fire etc.

b)      Hassel free registration of

a.       Sim Card

b.      LPG connection

c.       Driving License

In effect Digital Locker will touch every Citizen life by bringing in lot of convenience and therefore fulfilling the government vision of citizen centric governance model of providing services at the door step of citizens.

In India, most of the government documents used for various purposes are in physical form. This inter alia means that every time a citizen needs to avail  any  service,  a self attested  photo  copy  either  in  physical  or  scanned  form  is  shared.  Use of physical copies of document creates huge overheads in terms of manual verification, paper storage, manual audits etc. and thereby incurring cost and inconvenience for all the stakeholders.  This also creates problem for various agencies to verify the authenticity of these documents, thus, creating loopholes in the eco system leading to usage of fake documents/certificates by certain unscrupulous elements. The Digital Locker is going to address these concerns. 

AIPEU, Group-C, Durg Division registers protest against its Divisional Superintendent for misbehavoiur / irregular charge sheet

SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT ON POSTMAN PAY SCALES FROM 01-01-1996

 

 

EDITORIAL POSTAL CRUSADER JUNE-2015

ONE YEAR OF MODI GOVERNMENT

DISAPPOINTING TO WORKING CLASS

            Modi Government has completed ONE YEAR. Within this one year. No remarkable change or development is being seen. So many populous slogans and promises during election campaign and thereafter coming in power were made and people of India were hypnotized and got their Votes and formed the government with full majority and this happened after 30 years when a single party came in power with full fledged majority. Working class in general and salaried class in particular was very hopeful for “ACHCHHE DIN” (Good Days) and they were expecting D.A.  merger, Interim Relief and raising in income tax exemption limit. But Government denied everything instead of giving any relief to the working class, all round  attacks were started in several  forms in the shape of Labour  Laws amendments, attack on wages and lively hood of working class who create wealth for the nation and ban on recruitment in Central Government Services for one year, attack on social security  rights doing away with the employees provident fund scheme and diverting a part of fund for speculation in share market doing away with ESI converting the same in to an insurance scheme under IRDA Drastic cut on  social sector expenditure and allocation on welfare schemes like ICDS, Mid Day Meal, NHRM, MNREGA with the Motive of finally doing away with such pro-people schemes  and programmes altogether.

            A vigorous campaign has been launched to  change the  labour laws like Industrial Dispute Act 1947, Factories Act, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition Act) and all wages related legislations etc, in favour of employers with the object to throw away the   Working Class of country out of purview of protection under the labour laws and Completely dismantling  entire labour law enforcement machinery,

            Never before the Working Class has faced such a situation. This is the working class who create GDP to Nation and profits to employers.

            In Central Government Sector also these attacks are being intensified. 100% FDI has been declared in Railway and 49% in Defence Production paving way for capitalists/corporates to enter in to these sectors. Disinvestment has been started in profit making public sectors like NTPC, NHPC, Coal India etc. and planning to disinvest all profit making sectors.

            In Postal Department also there is danger of corporatization and privatization if the recommendations of Task Force Committee headed by Shri T.S.R. Subramanian are implemented. Though at present on account of stiff resistance by PJCA (NFPE/FNPO) the recommendations have not been implemented but these have also not been rejected by the Department of Posts and may be introduced at any time after changing the forms so we have to keep a vigilant watch over this.

            Contrary to this all schemes and planning’s are being made to give  benefits to Corporates /Capitalists by way of promulgating ordinances for decentralization of Coal mining  sector, de-regularization of other Mineral resources  through auction route totally being unconcerned about the lively hood of  local and tribal peoples and forest dwellers.

            The peasantry and agriculture workers are also worst suffers due to the policies of Modi Government. The prices of seeds, fertilizers, power, diesel, Water for irrigation have been increased many folds but the MSP of Wheat and rice has been increased by Rs.50/- per quintal only. The land of farmers will be snatched away without their consent in favour of capitalists and if the present amended land acquisition act is implemented

            So based on the above  facts, it is crystal clear  that the policies of present Modi Government  are totally in  favour of Capitalists/Corporates and against the interests of Working Class . The hope of “ACHCHHE DIN” (Good Days) is now diminished and working class and common man of this country is disappointed.

Revised Rates of Service Tax for PLI /RPLI Premia

Network-connected handheld devices for postal delivery soon

NEW DELHI: The Department of Posts (DoP) is likely to soon start a Rs 1,370-crore mega project that will allow India's 1.3 lakh postmen in rural regions to use network-connected handheld terminals for postal delivery.

The project, awarded last year to a consortium that includes state-run Telecom Consultants of India (TCIL), system integrator Ricoh India and Hyderabad-based VisionTek, which provides handheld devices, was delayed due to unavailability of components.

Big IT companies such as HP and Wipro were also in the running for the contract rolled out by the ministry of communications & information technology. "Based on terminal devices on network, the DoP initiative is likely to happen later this month. The project was delayed as the private company took time to deliver the components," TCIL's chairman and managing director Vimal Wakhlu told ET.

The devices will have a biometric module to authenticate an individual's identity using the Aadhaar number, solar-powered panel for charging terminals and a thermal printer to instantly print receipts.

"This is completely an indigenous project, including devices and components, and strengthens the concept of 'Make in India'," said Wakhlu.

The initiative is aimed at preventing postal losses and minimising procedural delays. The service will require a digital signature of the addressee that can be automatically transferred to a central server and an acknowledgement sent to the person.

TCIL is roping in state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing network connectivity.

The movement of postmen can be tracked using GPS on this device. It will help monitor the entire system and ensure more efficiency as post offices play a vital role in India's rural economy, Wakhlu said. "This programme is a step towards financial inclusion of the people of rural India as it will facilitate financial transactions. Money can be delivered and accepted through this device, with proper bank account and receipts delivery," he said.

Ricoh will act as the systems integrator, managing installations, maintaining hardware and supplying peripheral devices for the project.

"We have won the Rs 1,370-crore contract from DoP for the supply of hardware solutions under the department's modernisation initiatives. Ricoh will be providing maintenance services for rural ICT devices for a period of five years," said Ricoh India's managing director Manoj Kumar.

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