Dearness Allowance: Centre to survey spending patters of working class to finalise CPI numbers

Dearness Allowance: Centre to survey spending patters of working class to finalise CPI numbers.

Centre to survey spending patterns of working class

In a bid to understand the spending patterns and living conditions of working class, the Centre has decided to conduct a survey of workers’ family income and expenditure.

The survey, which will be conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation, a Government of India body, will be used to finalise consumer price index (CPI) numbers for the working class. The CPI is the base for deciding dearness allowances (DA) of the working class.

“The Working Class Family Income and Exemption Survey-2015 will cover workers engaged in seven organised sectors of employment-registered factories, mines, plantations, ports & docks, public motor transport undertakings, electricity generating and distributing establishments, and railways,” an official from NSSO told Deccan Herald.

The survey will be conducted in 88 centres spreading across 28 states and union territories including Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The survey will be conducted in eight places in Karnataka — Bengaluru, Belagavi, Chikkamagaluru, Davangere-Harihar, Hubballi-Dharwad, Kodagu, Mysuru and Mangaluru.

Read more at: Deccan Herald

Government servants carry important responsibility: Jayant Sinha

Government servants carry important responsibility: Jayant Sinha

Bhopal: Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that government servants carry important responsibility of public welfare that can be met efficiently through able decision making, quality work and giving results in less time.

Sinha was speaking on ‘Economic Reforms and Public Servants’ at Noronha memorial lecture series at RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration and Management here yesterday, an official statement said.
He said that Madhya Pradeshs progress in various sectors during the last 10 years proved that efficient government servants gave better results while working in tandem with capable political leadership.
A new beginning of economic reforms has been made in the state while the pace of development was also picking up gradually.

Pointing out that minimum government and maximum governance was the key to public welfare, Sinha said that every government servant could give development the shape of a movement by following this principle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were also votaries of this principle, he added.

Government servants of Madhya Pradesh can present an example before the country through good governance, economic reforms and speedy development works, said Sinha.

TKB

Railways to rationalise staff strength

Railways to rationalise staff strength

New Delhi: Railways has undertaken an exercise to rationalize the number of employees working in the state transporter and shortlisted four human resource audit companies for the task.

An HR audit company would be identified and entrusted with the task of studying the entire gazetted staff strength, said Railway Board Member (Staff) Pradeep Kumar here today.

Four companies shortlisted for this purpose are Earnst and Young, Deloitte, Price cooper waterhouse and KPMG.

The HR company will examine the Railways’ manpower given the technological development/changes in operational and maintenance practices and determine the optimal level of the staff strength in the coming years, Kumar said.

Currently railways employees 13.36 lakh gazetted and non-gazetted workers.

“We will also hire a reputed consultant to examine the strength in non-gazetted section to study the system and requirement and see if there is any extra flab,” he said.

The Railways will also take into account the international benchmarks before deciding on the issue, the Member (Staff) said.

On the Debroy Committee’s recommendation that railways should not involve in other activities such as running schools, hospitals and RPF, Kumar said “The committee has just given its report and we have to examine it.”

However, he added “there has to be a system to keep railways and its employees in good health. Eventually, to run the Railway system there has to be some agencies to do the job.”
Railways has also taken steps to conduct all examinations online as a fool-proof measures against malpractices.

He said as a major IT initiative, online applications were introduced in two recent exams for the posts of Senior Section Engineers and Junior Engineers (SSEs/JEs) and Para-Medical categories respectively to bring transparency and certainty into recruitment process.

As per the new system, the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) candidates can keep the question booklets. A pilot project of uploading of answer keys and cut-off marks was initiated in 2014-15, he said.
In the railway recruitment drive during 2014-15, examinations were conducted for 48,822 vacancies in 284 categories.

PTI

Implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System in all KV Schools

Implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System in all KV Schools

KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA SANGATHAN (HQ)
18, Institutional Area, S.J. Marg,
New Delhi-110016.

F. No. 11090-50/2015KVS (S&S)

Date: 15.06.2015

The Deputy Commissioner/Director
Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan,
All Regional Offices/All ZIETs

IMPORTANT

Subject: Implementation of Common Biometric Attendance System

Madam/Sir,

As a part of the “Digital India” program of Government of India, it has been decided to implement common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) which will enable an employee to register attendance by simply presenting his I her biometric (finger print/ Iris) which will be authenticated online by doing one to one match with the bio-metric stored in the UIDAI data base against the employee’s Aadhaar number. This Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System needs only Aadhaar number, basic demographic details and a photograph of the user at the time of user registration which can be done by employee himself I herself by simple web based system. The biometric details are already available with the UIDAI which are then used for authentication.

2. To overcome the challenges in the present attendance systems, Common Biometric Attendance System is envisaged with following features:

2.1 Cloud-based attendance software installed and operated from NIC National Data Centre
(Further details can be noted from para 2 of “On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System” which is available on the ‘attendance.gov,in’ web site)
2.2 Dedicated secure connectivity will be provided between National Data Centre & UIDAI Data Centre by NIC for authentication.
2.3 All Ministries I Departments I subordinate organisations can access the system using the NIC network provided in the Bhawans.
2.4 Offices using the system will install biometric enabled terminals I devices to mark the attendance; the number and location of required devices will be assessed by the offices; the offices concerned will be responsible for day-today maintenance of the devices.
2.5 Connectivity of the devices /terminals will be established through Wi-Fi I GPRS.
2.6 Customised reporting formats for various levels of employees will be developed by UIDAI/ NIC.
2.7 Facility for centralised compilation and publication of attendance data in public domain will be provided as per requirements.

3. This setup costs extremely less and management information system does not require any resources or manual intervention. To facilitate the implementation and thereafter operate the Biometric Attendance System (BAS), it is desired to nominate a Nodal Officer (NO) for acting as a Single Point of Contract (SPoC) for driving the Boimetric attendance initiative. The Deputy Commissioner will be the Nodal Officer in case of Regional Offices. The Director will be the Nodal Officer in case of ZIETs and Principal shall be the Nodal Officer in case of Kendriya Vidyalaya concerned. The Nodal Officer shall be responsible for:-

3.1 Monitoring and co-coordinating with the stakeholders for smooth functioning of the Biometric Attendance System
3.2 providing update facility for bio-metric updating in case of poor bio-metric capture during enrolment process and in cases where there are failure in detecting the fingerprints by organising Aadhaar camps.
3.3 Organising special Aadhaar Enrolment Camps (AECs), if considerable numbers of employees are not able to register on the portal due to nonavailability of Aadhaar numbers.
3.4 Aadhaar number generation for the enrolments done in the AECs.
3.5 e-Aadhaar access.
3.6 Best Finger Detection and other Aadhaar related issues.
3.7 The Nodal Officers concerned are required to register the Unit online (once) on the portal for using attendance.gov.in by giving number of employees and their existing website name. Once the registration of the KVS unit (i.e Regional Office/ZIET/KV, as the case may be) is complete, the name of Unit concerned will be listed in the portal for enrolment of the employees and generation of various types of reports pertaining to that Unit.
(For further details and steps for on-boarding the unit in the attendance portal can be found in Appendix ‘B’ of para 5.2 of On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System-)
3.8 Subsequent step after registration of Unit concerned is, registration of employees. The employees of the Unit concerned are required to do online registration on attendance.gov.in portal for enabling them to mark attendance. The employees need to fill an online form using the fink ‘Employees Registration’ on the attendance portal. After the quality check y the UIDAI I Nodal Officer the employee becomes active in the attendance portal and can mark its attendance through the devices installed.
(The details required for on boarding of employees in the attendance portal can be found in Appendix ‘C’ of para 5.3 to 5.6 of ‘On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System’·)

4. In the first phase of implementation, approximately 150 Central Government Organisations have on boarded about 50,000 employees on common attendance portal {attendance.gov.in). 1000 wall mounted bio-metric attendance terminals, 5000 finger prints scanning devices and 200 IRIS devices have been procured through an open tender process floated by NICS I for 100 Government Bhawans I buildings. In the second phase of the program, the Gol has proposed that Central Government organisations shall use the common biometric attendance portal, which is hosted at NIC data center and shall procure I maintain biometric attendance terminals and desktop fingerprint scanning devices I IRIS devices in a decentralised manner, through open tenders, DGS&D rate contract & NICSI empanelled vendors. The Central Government Organisations shall procure the required Wi-Fi Access point for enabling network connectivity in the biometric attendance terminals through DGS&D rate contract.

(Further details for the plan of action can be noted from para 4, 5.7 of On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System-)

5. It is estimated that for every 50 employees, one wall mounted bio-metric attendance terminal would be required and one finger print scanning device on a desktop would be sufficient for a unit (i.e. RO/ZIET/KV). Therefore, the total requirement of wall mounted biometric terminals as well as desktop devices could be estimated based on the total number of employees. However, depending upon the justified ground – based circumstances, the additional number of such devices can be procured for the smooth implementation of the BAS. The device(s) [i.e. wall mounted bio-metric attendance terminals, desktop finger print and iris scanning devices] can be procured through following methods:-

5.1 NICSI – devices are readily available for procurement through tho empanelled venders.
5.2 OPEN TENDERS devises can also be procured through open tenders but device specification should adhered to as appended in Appendix ‘D’ of the On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System.
5.3 DGS&D – rate contracts are being finalised,. However, present status may be inquired at your level and document(s) in this regard be kept in your office record before taking further action.

( Tlw Indicative specifications ot tile devices required for the Installation of the BAS can be found in Appendix ‘D’ of the On-boarding Manuel for Biometric Attendance System·)

6. The bio-metric attendance terminals would require Wi-Fi connectivity through the internet I NICNET for communicating with the back-end attendance servers, which are installed at NIC data centers. Therefore, there is need to procure connectivity (GPRS/Wi-Fi using NICNET/Broadband /Internet) from suitable service providers. For proper functioning of the Biometric attendance terminals, minimum 1 mbps of bandwidth connectivity is advised. The format placed at Appendix ‘E’ of the On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System for capturing the connectivity requirements may be used.

7. The site for installation of the wall mounted biometric terminals under 24 hours security shall be vigilantly & intelligently identified by the Nodal Officer ensuring the following:-

7.1 220 V/5A Electrical points with suitable security.
7.2 Protection from environmental conditions like rain, sun etc.
7.3 LAN point for connecting Wi-Fi access devices.
7.4 Good data connectivity through GPRS I 3G as a backup connectivity. Appendix ‘F’ of the On-boarding Manual for Biometric Attendance System for site requirements may be referred to.

8. The Nodal Officer shall take up the installation, commissioning and maintenance of the Biometric attendance terminals with the help of vendors who are empanelled with DGS&D, UIDAI, NIC and DeitY who shall extend all technical support for integrated back-end infrastructure.

9. The Nodal Officer of the respective Unit (i.e. Regional Offices, ZIETs and Kendriya Vidyalayas) shall be responsible for maintenance of the devices installed in his I her Unit. The agencies will also be responsible for taking suitable on-site warranty support for smooth functioning of BAS.
For any suspicion, you may visit the ‘On-boarding Manual for Organisations to install Aadhaar-enabled Biometric Attendance System’ which is readily available on the KVS web-portal and also the FAQs available on ‘http://attendance.gov.in/fag/public fag’.

10. The Nodal Officers in case of KVS, Regional Offices and ZIETs shall ensure to complete the process of procurement of devices as per requirement & norms and make the Biometric Attendance System functional by 07.07.2015.

11. The Deputy Commissioner of respective Regions will further ensure that the Biometric Attendance System is put on fully functional in each of the Kendriya Vidyalaya of his I her Region.

12. It is also intimated that M/s MGRM Net Ltd have been recently awarded the work of MIS/ERP of all KVs through NICSI by KVS. M/s MGRM Net Ltd will be providing one Bio-metric terminal with no additional cost to each school while implementing MIS/ERP (KV Shaala Darpan) in all Kendriya Vidyalayas. One Biometric Terminal seems to be sufficient for 50 to register attendance. So, a KV up to the strength of 50 employee, need not spend on hardware (Biometric device) The compliance report may be sent to this office. Suggestions, if any, to improve the system are solicited.

Yours faithfully,
sd/-
(G.K. Srivastava)
Additional Commissioner (Adm.)

Authority : www.kvsangathan.nic.in

Tatkal Booking Timings Change – Online Booking Passengers Pleased

Tatkal Booking Timings Change – Online Booking Passengers Pleased

Revision of Tatkal Timings – Passengers are happy with the steps taken by the Railways?

There is now a reduction in the jamming of the IRCTC website that occurred because AC and Second Class passengers were trying, at the same time, to book tatkal tickets online. It has therefore now become easier for passengers to book second class tickets on the internet.

Nearly 15000 tickets are being booked through IRCTC website at tatkal hours. The huge traffic will be diverted into two segments such as AC and Non AC.

Timings for the Railway Tatkal ticket booking have been changed from 15th June 2015. Previously the booking under Tatkal Scheme opens at 10.00 hrs on the previous day of journey from train originating station for all classes. According to the new schedule, booking for the AC coaches will open at 10 AM and ticket bookings for the other non AC classes are open at 11 AM.

And one more important decision taken by the Railway Board is completely debarred from booking tickets during the first thirty minutes of opening of booking for all authorized IRCTC Agents.

Generally the total number of seats of a train are divided into various quotas. Such as General Quota, Tatkal Quota, Ladies Quota and Pooled Quota. These quotas will differ for different trains.

30% of the total available Berths on a train are allocated for Tatkal Quota, and 10% are set aside for sitting tickets. Approximately 2 seats will be allocated in each coach for Ladies Quota. And nearly 8% of seats reserved for Pooled Quota. In AC Coaches, 16 tickets for each 3-tier AC coach and 10 tickets of 2-tier AC coaches are also being allocated for the online tatkal booking.

Accommodation reserved not only for Ladies, also Sr. Citizen and Pregnant Women. Accommodation of six berths in sleeper class of all the trains is earmarked for exclusive use of lady passengers. In addition to this a combined quota of 2 lower berths is earmarked in sleeper class, AC 3-Tier and AC 2-Tier classes for Sr. Citizens, Female passengers 45 years of age and above traveling alone and pregnant women in all trains. Pregnant women will be required to submit a certificate of pregnancy certified by one registered Medical Practitioner at the time of booking against the quota.

So totally 40% tickets are being set aside for quota reservations. With more than 80% of the population preferring to travel in second class, it becomes a moral duty of the Government to give due importance to it.

Click to read more at cgstaffnews.in

CGHS: Time limit for submission of final claims reimbursement of medical expenses

Revision of time limit for submission of final claims reimbursement of medical expenses under CS(MA) rules, 1944 – regarding.

No. S. 14025/19/2015-MS
Government of India
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
Department of Health & Family Welfare

Nirman Bhagavan, New Delhi
Dated : 27th May, 2015.

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Revision of time limit for submission of final claims reimbursement of medical expenses under CS(MA) rules, 1944 – regarding.

The undersigned is directed to refer to OM No. F. 29-40/68-MA dated 15.10.1968 in which it was laid down that submission of final claims for reimbursement of medical expenses of Central Government servants in respect of a particular spell of illness should ordinarily be preferred within 3 months from the date of completion of treatment.

2. A representation was received from National Council (Staff Side) to extend the time limit for submission of such medical bills from 3 months to 6 months. The matter was examined in the Ministry and it has been decided that the period of 3 month s for submission of medical claims be revised to 6 months. Henceforth, only the cases in which the bills are submitted after 6 months from the date of completion of medical treatment/discharge of the patient from the hospital are required to be taken up for condonation. The power of condonation of such delays and other terms and conditions woukld be same as enumerated in the OM No.S.14025/8/99/-MS dated 25.05.1999.

3. The issue with the approval of the competent authority.

(Sunil Kumar Gupta)

Under Secretary to the Govt. of India

Source : mohfw.nic.in

One Rank One Pension – Ex-servicemen launch nationwide stir

One Rank One Pension – Ex-servicemen launch nationwide stir

Ex-servicemen have launched a series of protests all over the country demanding the implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme. A massive relay hunger strike began in New Delhi.

In select cities around the country, ex-servicemen gathered in huge numbers to express their dissatisfaction against the government.

Ex-servicemen are being given pension depending on the year of their retirement, their ranks, and the number of years that they had served. Soldiers who had retired before 1996 continue to get very low pensions compared to those who had retired after 1996, leading to a great dissatisfaction among those who belong to the former category. A senior officer who had retired before 1996 draws lesser pension than his junior officers who had retired after 1996. Despite the fact that budgetary allocations were made to resolve this issue, nothing was done.

In addition to Delhi, similar protests are also on in Bihar, Jalandar, and Bengaluru.

Latest updates on Protest over OROP delay…

One Rank One Pension likely ahead of Bihar polls – PTI
The long-pending ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen is likely to be rolled out ahead of the Assembly polls in Bihar later this year, top government sources indicated on Tuesday.
The government is working out the modalities for OROP and the announcement will be made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they said. (Click to continue…)

THE SOLDIER’S justify – WHY THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE ONE RANK ONE PENSION ARE MISLEADING – Times of India
Third Pay Commission, which brought military salaries in line with civil services. It set us down the road to the current fight over one-rank-one-pension (OROP) by military veterans.
Sixth Pay Commission granted what bureaucrats call “nonfunctional upgrade“(NFU) to officers in all-India Group A services.This is a sort of ’pay-romotion’ allowing them to draw higher pay than their rank under certain conditions. Almost all civil servants benefit from this while defence services officers do not. As lawyer Navdeep Singh points out, NFU is a sort of “OROP by backdoor for civil servants“. (Click to continue...)

One Rank One Pension row: Ex-servicemen begin indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar – Zee News
In an extreme step taken to ratchet up the pressure on the government, the ex-servicemen reportedly signed a ‘petition in blood’ and announced to hand it over to President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narendra Modi. (Click to continue...)

FINANCE, DEFENCE MINISTRIES GET TO WORK ON MILITARY PENSIONS OVERHAUL – By Shishir Gupta and Gaurav Choudhury – Hindustan Times
The finance and defence ministries are working towards hammering out a consensus formula on the proposed retirement benefits. The finance ministry, sources said, has pointed out that a way needs to be found out to fund the payouts, which are likely to increase every year given the definition of OROP.
The finance ministry was inclined to refer the matter to the Seventh Pay Commission headed by Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur to recommend the most appropriate method and roadmap for implementing OROP, sources said. (Click to continue...)

Pay Commission report to be filed by late June

Pay Commission report to be filed by late June

Even as tenure of the State Pay Commission is drawing to a close on June 30, the Commission is keeping itself on its toes to submit the report in time. The date has not been finalised yet in view of the impending by-election in Aruvikkara.

Since the Commission, headed by Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair, was unable to take decisions on certain crucial issues, the report carries only recommendations on pay scale and pension of the employees.
The members of the commission had earlier sought to extend the deadline to include recommendations covering all the issues. However, the Justice Ramachandran, and other members of the Commission, K.V. Thomas and T.V. George reached a consensus to file the report in time.

Read more at Manoramaonline

Government servants carry important responsibility: Jayant Sinha

Government servants carry important responsibility: Jayant Sinha

Bhopal: Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that government servants carry important responsibility of public welfare that can be met efficiently through able decision making, quality work and giving results in less time.

Sinha was speaking on ‘Economic Reforms and Public Servants’ at Noronha memorial lecture series at RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration and Management here yesterday, an official statement said.
He said that Madhya Pradeshs progress in various sectors during the last 10 years proved that efficient government servants gave better results while working in tandem with capable political leadership.
A new beginning of economic reforms has been made in the state while the pace of development was also picking up gradually.

Pointing out that minimum government and maximum governance was the key to public welfare, Sinha said that every government servant could give development the shape of a movement by following this principle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were also votaries of this principle, he added.

Government servants of Madhya Pradesh can present an example before the country through good governance, economic reforms and speedy development works, said Sinha.

TKB