Upgradation the grade pay of LDC & UDC: AIAMS writes explanatory letter to NAC & other Sister Association
ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF (NG)
MINISTRY OF STATISTICS & PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
GOVERNMENT ON INDIA
NSSO (FOD), Hall No. 201 & 205, Vijay Stumbh,
Zone I, Maharana Pratap Nagar,
No. 4/GS/2013
Bhopal, 06/09/2013
Sub: Revision
of Grade Pay of LDC to Rs. 2400/ and that of UDC to Rs. 2800/-request
for your personal intervention for getting a favorable decision.
Dear Sir,
At
the outset I would like to introduce me as TKR Pillai, General
Secretary, All India Association of Administrative Staff (Non Gazetted),
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of
India. This Association had written a letter to the Hon’ble Prime
Minister to apprise him of the pathetic conditions of LDC & UDC
working in the Central Government Offices and request his office’s
intervention on the matter (Copy enclosed in annexure 2 to VIII). While
taking action on the said letter DoPT has identified the LDC/UDC issue
as anomaly and the case has been sent to JCA for action (copy enclosed
in annexure I).
Earlier, the matter was raised in the National
Executive Meeting of the Confederation of Central Government Employees
and Workers by the undersigned and according to a decision taken in the
meeting Shri S.K. Vyas, President Confederation and Member National JCM
& NAC had put up the item in the National Anomaly Committee.
Unfortunately, this most important issue has not been taken up for
discussion in the forum so far.
1. Why the LDC & UDC case become anomaly?
Sixth
Pay Commission has denied an appropriate pay structure to the LDC &
UDC of Government of India Offices in the light of raising the academic
and technical qualification and responsibilities assigned. The
officials in these cadres are initiating the official work and made
responsible for smooth functioning of the offices, have been granted a
simple replacement grade pays. In fact the Grade Pay granted to the post
of LDC is only Rs.1900 which is just Rs.100 more than the grade pay of
MTS, i.e. Rs.1800/-. In the mean time the academic & technical
qualifications to get selected to the post of LDC have been raised. On
the other hand, the Pay Commission has recommended the merger of various
group D posts and upgraded their grade pay from Rs. 1400 to Rs.1800 and
also given them additional benefit of 3 MACPs to the merged posts.
Moreover, all the pre-revised pay scales above UDC -from Accountant to
Assistant Administrative Officer- have been merged and granted Rs. 4200
-4600 grade pay.
1.1 Duties/responsibilities assigned to the LDCs in the Non CSCS office:
As
per the Staff Selection Commission notification Lower Division Clerks
are entrusted with routine nature of work, for example registration of
Dak, maintenance of section diary, file register, file movement
register, indexing and recording of files, typing, comparing, dispatch,
preparation of arrears and other statements etc.
Whereas in
practice, most of the Non CSCS office (where total staff strength is
not more than 100) has been allocated with average one Administrative
Officer, 1-2 Assistants, two UDC and 3 to 4 LDC.
(A)
And in a normal Non CSCS office, it has 5-6 major sections which could
only be allocated to UDC & above as per the DoPT guide lines, viz.
(i)
Accounts Section-I (where, various payments are processed and released,
Income Tax, Budget, NPS, monthly Expenditure Statement, reconciliation
are done),
(ii) Store & purchase Section,
(iii) Establishment Section (where service records, leave and other personal matters are processed),
(iv) Bill Section, where various kind Bills have been scrutinized for passing etc.
(v) RTI, Court Cases, handling of Audit Para etc.
(B) In addition there are other sections viz.
(i)Accounts/Cash
Section-II(to Assist the Accounts Section I in discharging their day to
day duties, disbursement of cash and maintenance of related registers,
cheque books, postage stamps etc), (ii)Dispatch & Diary, (iii)loans
& Advance, (iv)typing, maintenance of library, file register, file
movement register, indexing and recording of files, comparing,
preparation of arrears and other statements etc.
Since the number
of UDCs sanctioned is much lesser than the actual requirement, LDCs are
posted in the major section as given under ‘A’ above. Thus in contrary
to the nature of duties of LDC as given in the DoPT manual as well as
the Staff Selection notification the quality and quantity of work done
by the LDC & UDCs are much higher in these offices. The officers are
only taking decision on the file put up by the LDCs/UDC on all the
matters.
1.2 Position in Indian Railways:
In
Railways also, the Junior Clerk & Senior Clerk are even used to
allocate the duties identified for the post of OS-II/Head Clerk and made
them responsible for the area of work assigned. Junior clerks are
allocated route administrative matters/independent section wherein
noting drafting, typing in computer etc are involved. The young, dynamic
persons with reasonable academic and technical qualification join on
the post of Junior Clerk are capable to take up any kind of assignment
and the administration identifies the capabilities of these young chaps
and allocates work with higher responsibilities accordingly. Some
instances of work allocated to them are as follows –
(1)
Preparation of staff muster roll and sending it for salary payment to
staff. (2) Issue of Pass/PTO/MCTO etc. (3) Dealing with Railway Quarters
& House Rent Allowance case. (4) Issue of Medical card/Identity
card etc. (5) Keeping up date knowledge of Railway Establishment
Serials/Rulings. (6) Matters related with training, Joining, Transfer,
Promotion, Retirement etc. (7) Monitoring of Stock & Non-stock,
Requisitions related to Store section and Rolling stock section. (8)
Ensuring all the records related to Stores & Establishment Section.
(9) Monitoring & processing of challans, Condemnation. (10) Dealing
with cases related to PNM Items, D&A cases, Court cases, Inspection
Notes, Theft Cases, IOD Cases, & Stock verification (11) Different
works of technical data entry and computer related work
1.3 Data Entry Operator (DEO) & LDC
In
accordance with the recommendation of 6th Pay Commission, Government
India has raised the academic qualification from Matriculation to 12th
class pass or equivalent and technical qualification of typing from
manual typewriter to sophisticated computer for getting selected to the
post of LDC through Staff Selection Commission. It is to be noted that
typing on computer is far different from the typing on typewriter
because for typing on computer one should have the knowledge of the
operation of computer for which one required to undergo a computer
diploma programme.
The academic qualifications required for both
LDC & DEO are the same i.e. 12th class pass or equivalent. As
regards the technical qualification the candidate appearing for the post
of LDC requires 10500 KDPH/9000 KDPH English and Hindi typing
respectively on computer whereas the candidate appearing the DEO
requires 8,000 KDPH on Computer. But the grade pay granted/fixed for the
post of LDC is 1900 and the same for DEO is 2400. Moreover, the DEO has
only to entry the readymade data given to them whereas the LDCs have to
create data/draft letters and then to type on computer, putting up the
matter through file note with justification with the support of rules
and procedure. Thus LDC does more work in qualitatively and
quantitative terms with less grade pay than that of the DEO.
1.4 LDC & MTS
Even
though the raising of academic qualification of MTS from 8th Standard
to Matriculation, duties prescribed for the earlier Group D and the
present MTS are the same.
Whereas the academic & technical
qualification of the LDC have been upgraded and assigned heavy
responsibilities on them by the office concerned. Majority of the
persons selected for the post are graduates and even post graduates and
qualified to handle any kind of assignment. The job profile of the post
has undergone significant changes after introduction of modernization in
Government offices. Now, computers have taken the place of typewriters.
During
the 5th Pay Commission, pay scale S-1 to S-4 were granted to the group D
posts and pay scale S-5 was granted to LDC i.e. one step above than the
pay scale of the Group D posts which never crossed over the pay scale
of LDC. In the 6th Pay Commission the pay band of MTS (formerly group
D), LDC & UDC are same and Grade pay of LDC is 1900/ and that of MTS
through MACP is 2400/.
2. Massive support from web sites publishes Central Government Employees’ issues:
Meanwhile,
various web sites which are exclusively publish the issues of the
Government Employees’ have given enormous support on the upgradation of
the grade pay of the LDC & UDC and published all important
correspondence in this connection. Hundreds of LDC and UDCs and other
central Government employees registered their comments in support of the
issue in these web sites.
3. Upgradation of the Grade Pay of LDC/UDC by the Rajasthan/Punjab/.Himachal Pradesh & Haryana Governments:
Rajasthan
government had set up Shri Govind Sharma committee to study the
upgradation of the grade pay of LDC & UDC. Following a very positive
recommendation from the Committee the Rajasthan Government has raised
the grade pay of LDC and UDC from the Rs. 1900 & 2400 to 2400 and
2,800 respectively. Also the names of posts 'Lower Division Clerk' and
'Upper Division Clerk’ have been changed as ‘Clerk grade-II' and 'Clerk
grade-I' respectively. Similarly, the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and
Haryana Government have reportedly upgraded the grade pay of LDC &
UDC.
4. Conclusion
Sir, while taking up
this issue, I have got tremendous response from LDC UDC as well as
other sections of the various central Government Departments including
Railways and Defense. Dozens of phone calls, e-mail and letter through
post are being received on daily basis in support of the demand.
Each
and every one who has written me had emphasized that Government of
India Offices especially the subordinate offices are functioning
smoothly virtually due to the fact that LDCs & UDCs are shouldering
heavy responsibilities. But the Pay Commission has not considered equal
pay for the work done by them. This has been a demoralizing effect on
the already desperate young and talented cadre in the Government
offices.
From the above it is evident that the upgradation of the
grade pay of LDC & UDCs is a genuine issue. We, therefore,
justifiably request you to put a case for revision of Grade Pay of LDC
to Rs. 2400/ and that of UDC to Rs. 2800/. It is to be noted that cases
of several cadres in the Administrative branch were considered and
favorable decision was taken by the 6th CPC but the case of LDC &
UDC were left out. The LDC and the UDC also deserve higher grade pays
than the present one, to commensurate with the qualifications and
assignments attached to these posts after the implementation of the
recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission.
I conclude this letter with two comments among the hundreds of comments written in favour on various web sites as follows.
(1) “Whether letter sent to the DOPT regarding the upgradation of grade
pay of LDC and UDC will be considered or not. We are poor LDC and UDC.
Nobody has time to understand us. Everybody tries to have best of
comforts, income and all other facilities to the higher class of
employees. The lower levels of employees are doing hard works. Among
them there will be graduates and postgraduates along with few numbers of
SSLC or Plus Two or pre-degree qualified. But whatever may be the
qualification of the higher class, whether SSLC or PDC or Plus Two,
there is no problem. Everybody will get enough. But in the case of LDC
and UDC they have to suffer a lot- A lot of financial burden. Try to
make awareness among the high powered DOPT about our problems”.
(2)
“Many many thanks for your kind efforts taken for the betterment of the
Clerical Staff working in the Sub-ordinate Offices of the Govt. of
India. The GOI's stepmother treatment towards the Clerical Staff working
in the Sub-ordinate Offices must be stopped. There should be parity
between the CSCS & the Clerical Staff working in the Sub-ordinate
Offices of the Ministry. We have seen that the Govt. has wisely
protected the CSCS by implementing NFSG Scheme & Cadre Restructure
after the VIth CPC. But the same procedure has not been extended to
Sub-ordinate services. Once again many many thanks Sir.”
In view
of the above, we seek your kind personal intervention for getting a
favorable decision to revise the GP at Rs. 2400/ and 2800/ respectively
to LDC & UDC.
Thanking you
Yours Sincerely
Encl: As above
(TKR Pillai)
General Secretary
Mob. No. 09425372172
Source: http://aiamshq.blogspot.in/
