Implementation of 7th CPC : Minutes of the 2nd meeting of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS)

Implementation of 7th CPC : Minutes of the 2nd meeting of Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS)

A meeting of the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) was held on 1 st March, 2016 in the Cabinet Secretariat under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary to discuss issues raised by Staff„side of JCM

2. Welcoming the members of E-CoS and JCM Staffrside, Cabinet Secretary observed that the meeting had been called to take a note of concerns of Stäff-$ide of JCM regarding recommendations of the 7th CPC and invited the members Of Staff-side of JCM to share their views on the recommendations.

3. Opening the discussion, representative of Staff-side of JCM expressed gratitude to Cabinet Secretary for inviting them for interaction regarding the recommendations of the 7th CPC and requested that more frequent interactions of JCM may be held to resolve outstanding issues across the table. It was expressed that 7th CPC has recommended a meager increase of 14% in the minimum pay as against increase ranging up to 54% during previous Pay Commissions. It was further stated that the recommendations on minimum pay, allowances, advances etc. will cause difficulty to employees. Representative of Staff-side informed that they have already submitted a charter of demands to the Cabinet Secretary bringing out the issues. These have also been discussed in the meeting of JS (IC) with Staff-side of JCM held on 19.02.2016.

4. Major concerns expressed by JCM Staff-side were as under:

The minimum pay of Rs. 18000/- p.m. recommended by the Commission is on lower side and needs to be revised upward by taking into account the prices of commodities as on 01.07.2015 and appropriately factoring in for social obligations & housing.

(ii) New Pension Scheme should be done away with. Persons governed by the NPS are deprived of Family Pension and do not have provision of provident fund. As a result they are at a disadvantageous position as compared to the persons governed by the old system.

(iii) Recommendations on allowances need to be properly examined before taking a decision.

(iv) Fixed Medical Allowance should be increased from existing Rs. 500 p.m. to Rs. 2000 p.m. as majority of cities are not covered under CGI-IS and people residing outside the CGHS covered area are unable to meet their medical needs with meager amount of Rs. 500 p.m.

(v) Recommendation regarding withdrawal of non•interest bearing advances may not be accepted.

(vi) Outsourcing of services should be discouraged as the contract workers are being exploited by contractors and at the game time the service delivery is being compromised due to inefficiency and lack of accountability of low aid contractual staff.

(vii) Enhancement in contribution towards Group Insurance Scheme, is not justified as this would reduce the actual increase in take home salary considerably. If the rates are to be raised, the Government should bear the insurance premium

(viii) The recommendation regarding grant of only 80% of salary for the second year of Child Care Leave need not be accepted as this would deter women from availing of CCL, which was introduced as a welfare measure.

(ix) Annual increments be granted @ 5% instead of existing 3% and increments may be granted on two dates viz., 1 st of January and 1 st of July of every year as in the present system of grant of increment on 1 st July of every year, employees joining/promoted after 1 st January, who do not complete 6 months services as on 1 st July, have to wait for up to 18 months for grant of increment.

(x) The Commission’s recommendation of downgrading the Assistants of Central Secretariat for bringing in parity with their counterparts in the field offices is not appropriate.
(xi) Recommendation regarding PRIS need not be accepted as no scientific mechanism has been devised to assess the performance of employees and the same could e courage favoritism.

5. Issues regarding financial upgradation under MACPS in promotional hierarchy without grading stipulation. grant of two increments on promotion introduction of Productivity Linked Bonus, treating Grameen Dak Sevak as Government employees, removal of pap of 5% on compassionate appointment of  full pay and allowances In case of Work Related Illness and Injury Leave improving promotional avenues for technical and supervisory staff etc. were also raised by members of JCM.

6. During the discussion, representatives of JCM also suggested that the Nodal Officers nominated by various Ministries/Departments may hold interactions with recognized Staff Associations and other stakeholders under their purview so as to identify issues specific to those Ministries/Departments for redressal.

7. After hearing the participants, Cabinet Secretary observed that the deliberations have helped E-CoS in understanding the major concerns of the Staff-side and said that all issues have been taken note of. He assured that fair consideration will be given to all points brought out by JCM before taking a final view. He further stated that the E-CoS needs to examine the Report of the Commission in entirety as well as the issues raised by JCM in consultation with all other stakeholders. As such, it may take some time to take a final call on the recommendations of the Commission.

8. Cabinet Secretary also advised the members of E-CoS to hold interactions with their Staff Associations and other stakeholders under their purview preferably within a week.

9. Meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.

Venue: Committee Room, Cabinet Secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhawan
Date of Meeting: Thursday, the 1 st March, 2016
Time of Meeting: 6:45 PM

Members of E-CoS present
1 Cabinet Secretary
2. Chairman, Railway Board
3. Home Secretary
4 Defence Secretary
5 Secretary, D/o Science & Technology
6. Secretary, D/o Personnel & Training
7. Secretary, M/o Health & Family-Welfare
8. Secretary, D/o Pension and Pensioner’s Welfare
9. Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat
10. Secretary, D/o Posts
1 1 . Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General

Secretariat for E-CoS:
1. Joint Secretary, Implementation Cell, D/o Expenditure
2. Director, Implementation Cell, D/o Expenditure

Representatives of JCM (Staff-side):
1 . Shri Shiv Gopal Mishra
2. Shri M. Raghavaiah
3. Shri Rakhal Das Gupta
4. Shri Ch. Sankara Rao
5. Shri J.R. Bhosle
6. Shri Guman Singh
7. Shri R.P. Bhatnagar
8. Shri K.S. Murty
9. Shri K.K.N. Kutty
10. Shri C. Srikumar
11 . Shri R. Srinivasan
12. Shri M. Krishnan
13. Shri M.s. Raja

Source : Indwf.blogspot.in

Dr Jitendra Singh launches the telephonic feedback system for grievance redressal

Dr Jitendra Singh launches the telephonic feedback system for grievance redressal

Minister himself calls three citizens to take feedback

Setting a new precedence, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh initiated a telephone feedback mechanism for grievance redressal of the citizens here today. He personally called three complainants chosen on random basis, who had registered their grievances in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and their grievances were disposed off. The Minister sought their feedback regarding the response given by the Government to the grievances. These complainants included Shri Vijay V Lambat (Nagpur, Maharashtra) who had complained regarding the refund of money from Income Tax Department. The second person contacted by the Minister was Shri Aravindbabu Pormar from Bangalore. He had complained against Railways and sought refund of money from the Ministry of Railways. The third person contacted was Shri Paladugu Samba Siva Rao from Odisha, who had grievance related to Provident fund with the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The citizens contacted thanked the Minister and the department. They also suggested that the citizens should be contacted once over phone before closing the grievance. The Minister assured that the department is committed to take steps in this direction.

The Minister said that this direct citizen contact through telephone will not only enable us to assess the level of satisfaction received by the complaints after the redressal of grievance, it will also help in offering us valuable inputs required to improve the grievance redressal mechanism. He said that this is in line with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s dictum of minimum government, maximum governance with citizen centric approach. In the current age of social media and web portal, this approach will also give the citizens a feeling of direct involvement in the government’s grievance redressal mechanism.

The Minister said that in future, he himself will be calling the citizens at random and verify whether their complaints have been disposed off. He also said that the Secretary or senior official from the department will also make call to the citizens to verify the status of grievance. He further informed that during the last one year, ending December 2015, the grievance cell has received nearly 10 lakh complaints as compared to the average of 2-3 lakh yearly complaints earlier. He also expressed his happiness over the fact that nearly 90% complaints are redressed now.

Dr Singh also said that the rising number of grievances being registered by the citizens are an indication of the increasing faith of public in the personal interest in the redressal of grievances of the public by engaging with them over phone. The social media will also be used in the grievance redressal, he added.

Shri Devendra Chaudhry, Secretary, DARPG said that now on an average 1,500 grievances are disposed off in a day and nearly 45,000 grievances in a month. He also said that the department has made a list of more than 12,000 officers across the departments who are being contacted for the redressal of grievances.

The receipts of grievances have increased from about 5 lakhs to about 12 lakhs and at the same time the disposal has also increased from about 4 lakhs to nearly 11 lakh during the period of June, 2014 to February, 2016.

The Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Portal, a web based portal, has been designed and implemented in all the Ministries / Departments of Government of India. A customized software with local language interface has also been designed for the state governments. This software is called CPGRAMS – States.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel has Public Grievances Division which is responsible for issuing policy guidelines coordinating and monitoring of issues regarding redress of public grievances and staff grievances in general and for the central government in particular. The state module of CPGRAMS has been implemented in 9 States/Union Territories namely Haryana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Uttrakhand, Jharkhand and Punjab.

The PG Division also coordinates the Citizen Charter and Information and Facilitation Counters (IFCs) initiative of the Government of India. With the objective of improving public service delivery and making governments citizen-centric, an assessment improvement framework called “Sevottam” has been developed. Support is provided to Ministries / Departments and also State Governments to introduce the Sevottam framework for better service delivery.

The Division also provides secretarial support to the Standing Committee for grievances to the Joint Secretary and above level officers headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

PIB

Declaration of Holiday on 14th April, 2016- Birthday of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar

Declaration of Holiday on 14th April, 2016- Birthday of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar

F. No.12/6/2016-JCA-2
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
(Department of Personnel & Training)

North Block, New Delhi
Dated the 21st March, 2016.

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Declaration of Holiday on 14th April, 2016- Birthday of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.

It has been decided to declare Thursday, the 14th April 2016, as a Closed Holiday on account of the birthday of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, for all Central Government Offices including Industrial Establishments throughout India.

2. The above holiday is also being notified in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881).

3. All Ministries/Departments of Government of India may bring the above decision to the notice of all concerned.

(G Srinivasan)
Deputy Secretary to the Govt. of India

1 All Ministries/Departments of the Government of India.

2. UPSC / CVC/C85AG/ National Commission for Linguistic Minorities /National Commission for Scheduled Castes/National Commission for Scheduled Tribes/National Commission for Minorities/ President’s Secretariat /Vice President’s Secretariat/ Supreme Court/ High Court / Central Administrative Tribunal/Central Information Commission/Prime Minister’s Office/Cabinet Secretariat/ Election Commission of India/ National Human Rights Commission/ National Commission for Women/ National Commission for Backward Classes/ Planning Commission/Lok Sabha Secretariat/Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

3. All Sections/Officers in the Ministry of Personnel, PG 85 Pensions

4. All attached Offices/ Subordinate Offices/Autonomous bodies of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

5. Secretary, Staff Side, National Council (JCM), 13-C Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi (with 10 spare copies)

6 .Reserve Bank of India, Parliament Street, New Delhi.

7.Chairman/ Secretaries, Central Government Employee Welfare
Coordination Committees.

8. PIO, PIB, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi, with the request that necessary publicity may be given in this regard.

9. Facilitation Centre, DOP86T (20 copies)

10. NIC (DOP86T) with the request to place this O.M. on the Website of DOPT.(www.persmin.nic.in)

DOPT Circular

4 Days Bank Holiday from Thursday Onward

4 Days Bank Holiday from Thursday Onward

Customers won’t be able to conduct bank transactions at branches for 4 days in a row this week as all banks will be closed from Thursday, although the lenders assure that they will fully load ATMs for meeting people’s cash needs.

Thursday will be a holiday for celebrating the Holi festival, followed by Good Friday and the weekend.
Banks are closed on second and fourth Saturdays every month. Hence, 4 continuous offs for the bank employees.

Banks are trying to ensure that ATMs remain operational during these days so that people don’t have any cash problem, a senior public sector bank official said.

They are trying to put higher denomination notes in ATM machines to ensure meeting the cash demand, the official added.

IDBI Bank may be closed for an extra day if the strike call given by a section of officers and employees of the bank on March 28 (Monday) materialises.

The staffers, belonging to the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), have given the strike call to protest against the government move to privatise IDBI Bank.

The government owns around 80 per cent stake in the bank.

In Budget 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government was open to bringing down its stake in IDBI Bank to below 50 per cent.

PTI

OROP Implementation : Clarification Circular No.557 issued by PCDA on 17.3.2016

OROP Implementation : Clarification Circular No.557 issued by PCDA on 17.3.2016

OFFICE OF THE PR. CONTROLLER OF DEFENCE ACCOUNTS (PENSIONS)
DRAUPADI GHAT, ALLAHABAD- 211014

Circular No.557

Dated: 17.03.2016

Subject: Implementation of ‘One Rank One Pension’ (OROP) to Defence pensioners.

Reference: This office circular No 555 dated 04.02.2016.

A comprehensive list of maximum term of engagement for JCOs/ORs was enclosed as Appendix-X to this office Circular No. 555 dated 4.2.2016 has been slightly amended as under :-

2. Similarly, slightly amended comprehensive list of equivalence of ranks in the three services of Armed Forces is enclosed as Appendix ‘Y’ to this Circular which would substitute the Appendix-‘Y’ of the Circular No. 555 dated 04.02.2016.

3. PDAs have reported some difficulties on certain points while implementing the scheme of ‘OROP’. Necessary clarification in the matter is as under:-

Authority: http://pcdapension.nic.in/