NFIR: Retirement benefits for railway employees

NFIR: Retirement benefits of railway employees

Counting of services paid from contingencies with regular service for retirement benefits of raiiway employees who have put in such service – reg.

NFIR
Natiohal Federationf Indian Railwaymen

3, CHELMSFORD ROAD,
NEW DELHI – 1 10 055

Affiliated to :
Indian NationalTrade Union Congress (INTUC)
International Transport Workers’ Federation (lTF)

No. Il/35/pt.11

Dated: 09/03/2015

Thc Secretary (E),
Railway Board,
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: Counting of services paid from contingencies with regular service for retirement benefits of raiiway employees who have put in such service – reg.

Ref:
(i) NFIR’s PNM Item No.27/2011 & 3/2013.

(ii) Ministry of Railway’s OM No.E(NG)II/2014/CL/14 dated 25/11/2014 to the Secretary, Dop&T, North Block, NewDelhi.
(iii) NFIR’s letter No.II/35/Part.11 dated 07/01/2015.

(iv) Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & pensions, Dop&T oM No. Misc- 14017/6/2015 – Estt(RR), Dy. No. 1066914/15/CR dated 26/02/2015 addressed to Secretary, Railway Board, New Delhi & copy endorsed to the General Secretary, NFIR

The Secretary, DoP&T, North Block, New Delhi while enclosing copy of NFIR,s lefter No. II/35/Part. 11 dated 07/01/2015, has addressed letter to the secretary, Railway Board (OM dated 26/02/2015), wherein the Railway Ministry has been advised to send the proposal in accordance with the procedure laid down in Dop&T OM No. 2034/2/2010 – Estt. (D) dated 13th August, 2010.

Federation also desires to state that the issue was discussed in the NFIR’s PNM meeting held with the Railway Board on 19th/20th December, 2014 wherein the official Side while discussing PNM Itern No. 27/2011 & 3/2013 had stated that the subject matter has been referred to the DoP&T vide dated 25/11/2014 whose response was awaited. However the Dop&T’s OM dated 26/02/2015 reveals that the Railway Ministry has not sent proposal in the prescribed format. For ready reference copy of DoP&T OM dated 26/02/2015 is enclosed.

NFIR, therefore, requests the Railway Board to kindly see that proper proposal is sent to the DoPT duly endorsing copy to the Federation. The matter may be treated as important in view of the fact that the PNM item is pending since four years.

DA/As above

Yours faithfully,
(Dr. M. Raghavaiah)
General Secretary

Source: http://www.nfirindia.org/

Digital Life Certificate for Pensioners; More Than One Crore Pensioners May be Benefitted by the Scheme

Digital Life Certificate for Pensioners; More Than One Crore Pensioners May be Benefitted by the Scheme

Under the ‘Digital India Mission’, Government has launched ‘Jeevan Pramaan – an Aadhaar based Digital Life Certificate’ for pensioners on 10.11.2014. This facility provides an option to the pensioners to submit their life certificate digitally by authenticating biometrically using UIDAI Database. The pension disbursing agencies integrated with the Jeevan Pramaan Portal will get access to digital life certificate. The pensioners need not go to the pension disbursing agency in person.

Aadhaar numbers is used for bio-metric authentication of pensioners. All pensioners having Aadhaar number may avail this facility. More than one crore pensioners may be benefitted by the scheme.

Government has taken a number of steps to bring awareness among the pensioners regarding the digital life certificate scheme such as publicity through leading newspapers, organization of camps for pensioners, regular meetings with pension disbursing agencies etc.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

One Rank One Pension for the Armed Forces

One Rank One Pension Scheme

Press Information Bureau Government of India
 

Ministry of Defence

13-March, 2015

The principle of One Rank One Pension for the Armed Forces has been accepted by the Government. The modalities for implementation have been discussed with various stakeholders and are presently under consideration of the Government. Financial implication could be calculated, once the modalities are finalized and approved by the Government.

Possible amendments to the pension policies are being examined with a view to reduce litigation for removing disparities in pension of various ex-servicemen.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar in a written reply to Shri Mullappally Ramachandran and others in Lok Sabha today.

DM/NAMPI/HH/RAJ

- PIB

Ordnance Factories: Ministry of Defence

Ordnance Factories

Press Information Bureau Government of India
 

Ministry of Defence

13-March, 2015

Kelkar Committee had recommended that “Ordnance Factories should be corporatized into a single corporation under leadership of a competitive management. This corporation should be accorded the status of Navratna”.

The following steps have been taken by the Government on research and development initiative for innovation and import substitution in last one year:

• To avoid the delay in processing of R&D projects at Ordnance Factory Board Headquarters (OFBHQ), financial powers have been delegated to all levels.
• Factories have been given target to increase the expenditure on R&D activities to 3% of their turnover by the year 2018-19 in a phased manner.
• Factories are being encouraged to associate themselves with reputed Academic Institutes for Research Assistance.
• Core technologies have been identified for 12 Ordnance Factories to put in more focused efforts to cope up with Technology denial regime.
• Joint working on some of the large projects with Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) from the inception stage and to render manufacturing assistance, wherever required by DRDO is being encouraged.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to Shri Gaurav Gogoi and others in Lok Sabha today.

DM/NAMPI/HH/RAJ

- PIB

Modernization of Armed Forces

Modernization of Armed Forces 

Ministry of Defence

13-March, 2015

Budget allocation for modernization of armed forces under the Revised Estimates has been fully used during the last three years.  Details for the same including for the current year are as follows:-

(` in crore)

Year	BE	RE	Actual Expenditure	%age utilization w.r.t. RE
2011-12	56510.49	53292.30	56281.88	105.61
2012-13	66032.24	57395.46	58768.86	102.39
2013-14	73444.59	66406.41	66850.30	100.67
2014-15	75148.03	66151.73	56776.47	85.83

Note:- Actual expenditure for 2014-15 is upto February, 2015.

Utilization of Defence budget is monitored by means of the financial compilation prepared by Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) which captures the details of defence expenditure incurred all over the country. The progress of expenditure is reviewed periodically at various levels in the Ministry and Service Headquarters to identify any areas where expenditure may be lagging.   This helps to identify and resolve any problems in implementation of planned activities.

The desired capability defines the equipment to be procured. Towards this end, a number of proposals for increasing the combat capacity and mobility of Infantry are listed in the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan.

The expenditure being incurred on modernisation is as an outcome of implementation of the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP), which is sub-divided into five-year Services Capital Acquisition Plans (SCAP), which in turn form the basis of the Annual Acquisition Plans.

This information was given by Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar in a written reply to Shri Ram Kumar Sharma and others in Lok Sabha today.

DM/NAMPI/HH/RAJ

PIB

POSTAL DEPARTMENT REFERRED THE GDS CASE TO FINANCE MINISTRY FOR INCLUSION IN 7th CPC

POSTAL  DEPARTMENT REFERRED THE GDS CASE TO FINANCE MINISTRY FOR INCLUSION IN 7th CPC

Meeting with with PJCA

To
The Chairman / Secretary
Postal Joint Council of Action

Subject:   Meeting held with PJCA on 05/02/2015 under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (Posts)

Dear Sir,
       As decided vide Point 2 of the minutes of  above meeting, this is to inform you that the proposal of GDS for their inclusion within the terms of reference of 7th CPC has been endorsed to the Department of Expenditure for re-consideration.

Sd/-
(Arun Malik)
Director (SR & Legal)

Cadre Management in the CSS

Cadre Management in the CSS

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

12-March-2015 16:10 IST

Cadre Management in the CSS

The Department of Personnel & Training has taken various measures to fill up the total vacancies of 2633 in Assistants’ Grade and 478 in Section Officers’ Grade in all the participating Ministries and Departments of Central Secretariat Service, existing as on 1st January, 2015.

Around 1250 of the 2633 vacancies in the Assistants’ Grade have been filled up on an adhoc basis in February, 2015 after successful conclusion of the litigation concerning seniority list of Upper Division Clerks in the High Court of Delhi on 21st January, 2015.

To fill up the vacancies in the Section Officers’ Grade (seniority quota), zones for promotion have been issued for Select Lists upto 2014. Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for Section Officers’ Grade for the year 2014 has also been held for which 333 vacancies have been reported to Union Public Service Commission.

The shortfall in the Assistants’ Grade occurred as the Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGLE) 2013 had to be re-conducted by Staff Selection Commission (SSC) on the directions of Hon’ble Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi. 1267 direct recruitment quota vacancies for the year 2013 and 756 (tentative) vacancies for the year 2014 have been reported to SSC for filling up through CGLEs. Final results of CGLEs 2013 and 2014 have not yet been declared.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in Prime Minister’s office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Dr. K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao in the Rajya Sabha today

No proposal to issue smart card to government employees

No proposal to issue smart card to government employees

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 445
ANSWERED ON 25.02.2015

SMART CARD FOR EMPLOYEES

445 . Chinnaraj Shri Gopalakrishnan
Senthilnathan Shri PR.

Will the Minister of PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the Government is considering to issue smart card to all Government employees across the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the time by which the proposal will be implemented; and

(d) target fixed to issue this card?


ANSWER

Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (d): There is no proposal to issue smart card to government employees by Department of Personnel & Training.

Levy of charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in savings bank account w.e.f. 01.04.2015

LOK SABHA ANNEXURED UNSTARRED QUESTION 918 DATED 27.02.2015

ANNEXURE

Levy of charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in savings bank account shall be subject to the following additional guidelines:

I. In the event of a default in maintenance of minimum balance / average minimum balance as agreed to between the bank and customer, the bank should notify the customer clearly by SMS / email /letter etc. that in the event of the minimum balance not being restored in the account within a month from the date of notice , penal charges will be applicable.

II. In case the minimum balance is not restored within a reasonable period, which shall not be less than one month from the date of notice of shortfall, penal charges may be recovered under intimation to the account holder.

III. The policy on penal charges to be so levied may be decided with the approval of Board of the Bank.

IV. The penal charges should be directly proportionate to the extent of shortfall observed. In other words, the charges should be a fixed percentage levied on the amount of difference between the actual balance maintained and the minimum balance as agreed upon at the time of opening of account. A suitable slab structure for recovery of charges may be finalized.

V. It should be ensured that such charges are reasonable and not out of line with the average cost of providing the services.

VI. It should be ensured that the balance in the savings account does not turn into negative balance solely on account of levy of charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance.

The above annexure was attached with undermentioned Lok Sabha Q&A:-

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 918

ANSWERED ON 27.02.2015

MINIMUM BALANCE IN BANK ACCOUNTS

918 . Karunakaran Shri P.
Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines to Bank to inform their customers about fall in minimum balance in their accounts in advance;

(b) if so, the details thereof; and

(c) the status of implementation of said guidelines by banks?

ANSWER

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a) to (c) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines dated 20.11.2014 specifying that while levying charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in their savings bank accounts, banks shall adhere to the additional guidelines given in the Annexure. The guidelines come into effect from April 1, 2015.

All banks have been advised to take immediate steps to update customer information so as to facilitate sending alerts through electronic modes (SMSs / e.mails etc.) for effective implementation of the guidelines.

Annexure Source: http://164.100.47.132/Annexture_New/lsq16/4/au918.htm