Prime Minister Narendra Modi told bureaucrats: Do not use social media for self-promotion or spend too much time online

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told bureaucrats: Do not use social media for self-promotion or spend too much time online

Use social media for public service and not self-promotion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told bureaucrats on Friday, even as he pulled up a section of officials who he said spent too much time online.

"If the social media is used for announcing the date for the anti-polio vaccination then it’s very good," Modi said in his address to bureaucrats on the 11th civil service day, asking officials to make better use of online interaction tools.

"But giving two drops of polio vaccine and then circulating the photo through social media should not be done," he added.

Modi has more than 29 million Twitter followers with whom he constantly interacts besides using the 140-character interface to highlight government programmes.

The Prime Minister said the power of social media should be used only for people’s welfare and public causes.

"I see officers of district level so busy on social media that most of the time is spent on this (social media)," Modi said.

Modi said he was aware of the power of social media but added that at his meetings with bureaucrats through video conferences, he has often seen them busy taking pictures of the meeting on their mobile phones

Source : http://www.hindustantimes.com

6-month limit to complete graft enquiries against babus

6-month limit to complete graft enquiries against babus
New Delhi: The government has decided to fix six-month deadline for completion of corruption enquiries against IAS and IPS officers among others.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has finalised draft rules to put a time limit for each stage of the enquiries to ensure expeditious disposal of corruption cases.

"The Inquiring Authority should conclude the inquiry and submit his report within a period of six months," the draft rules said.

However, this period can be extended for a further period of six months after recording reasons of the Inquiring Authority in this regard, it said.

At present, there are no rules that define time limit for conducting corruption enquiries.

As per the government proposal, officers will get copy of articles of charges from the disciplinary authority and they should give their response mandatorily within 15 days.

In cases, where a disciplinary authority decides to consult Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in the matter involving a delinquent officer, its advice need to be shared with such charged employee.
The UPSC conducts civil service examination to select officers for various services including Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) and it is consulted by authorities concerned before acting against a civil servant.

The government servant will be given 15 days to submit his representation on receipt of such advice from the Commission.

All ministries have been asked to share their comments on the proposed changes in the rules, which if comes into force will be applicable to IAS, IFS and IPS officers and those belonging to other civil services.

PTI

Union Government may stop Cash and Jewellery details of Central Staff

Union Government may stop Cash and Jewellery details of Central Staff under Lokpal Act…

Govt may withhold cash, jewellery details of babus: Times of India

NEW DELHI: In what could bring relief to nearly five million Central government employees, the Narendra Modi government has decided to amend the Lokpal and the Lokayukta Act to give itself a statutory power to withhold certain information from the public.

All Central staff, as per the latest order of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), have to declare their assets and liabilities, both movable and immovable, as well as those of their spouses and dependents latest by September 15. All these information would then be put up by the respective ministries on their website accessible to everyone.

A number of representations received by the government from officials expressed fear that putting details of movable assets such as jewellery and cash in hand and bank would pose a security threat to them and their dependents, leave their children vulnerable to kidnapping and ransom demands. For instance, an official said he has put all savings in general provident fund which has accumulated to Rs 75 lakhs over a period of time. Putting this information in the public domain would leave him and his family members vulnerable.

Sources said the amendments proposed only gives the government the statutory power to withhold information related to officials’ movable assets only, such as his cash in hand or bank and jewellery owned by him or his family members. The government will not be empowered to hold back information on immovable assets: house or land owned by him.

The amendment also makes it clear that it will have no impact on the current asset declaration guidelines. The officials will have to continue declaring all their assets – movable and immovable as per the previous directive. Only difference the proposed amendment will make is to ensure certain information is not made public.

The DoPT is working on the proposed amendment and has already taken a view from the law ministry to bring in the required changes. Any fresh amendment will not impact the current declaration deadline of September 15 which is applicable for all employees.

Once these declarations are received by the government, it is for the respective ministries to put them up on its website accessible to all, except those related to the movable assets for which an amendment is required to implement it.

Source: Times of India

Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) be implemented in all central government offices

Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) be implemented in all central government offices

Aadhaar watch on babus

New Delhi, Aug. 20: The sarkari babu will have to make every minute count.

The Narendra Modi government has ordered that an Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) be implemented in all central government offices.

 A circular issued to all central government offices in the capital today has also asked employees, of all ranks, to submit their contact details (email ID, residential address, telephone and personal mobile phone numbers) to the department of personnel and training that is with the Prime Minister’s Office.

Delhi police are already building a databank containing the cellphone number, email ID, name, rank and “personal number” and of every city cop, from constable to commissioner, on the orders of the PMO. A letter from the home ministry on August 5 had asked for such a databank, which will also include the municipality in which the cop lives. “All the station house officers are on the job,” an officer said.

The circular issued today does not give a date from which the new attendance system will be implemented. It says “Aadhaar number is mandatory to register attendance”.

At least one state — Jharkhand — has begun implementing the AEBAS. But a central government order means the system will have to be adopted across the country.

The system will be implemented in the capital first and then in all central offices outside New Delhi. The order is binding on all employees, including those in the armed forces.

To implement the system, all offices will have to install fingerprint scanners with Wi-fi Internet. The objective of the system, sources said, is “to check absenteeism and measure the time an employee spends in office and the time he or she checks in and checks out”.

Similar systems have been implemented in many corporate offices, both in the private and the public sector, though they are not based on Aadhaar, the card issued to citizens by the Unique Identification Authority of India that was headed by Nandan Nilekani and created by the UPA II government of Manmohan Singh in 2009.

The system will also seek to ensure that employees cannot backdate attendance or mark attendance for someone else.

On July 1, Nilekani had met Modi and finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley and given a presentation on the Aadhaar scheme that impressed the new regime.

Police clueless

Delhi police have been left befuddled by the message from the PMO asking for the databank.

“This is unprecedented. We are not clear about the objective behind it,” a senior officer said in private.

“It seems the PMO is going to be the new control room for everything: it will keep a tab on all government officials including the police,” conjectured an IPS official posted in the home ministry.

The Delhi police, who claim to be the world’s largest metropolitan force with their 80,000 personnel including nearly 50,000 constables, have thrown themselves into the massive exercise.

Delhi’s is the only police force in the country that is under the Union home ministry’s direct control. Police sources said the directive came in the form of a ministry letter dated August 5.

Additional deputy commissioner Mahesh Batra then wrote to all the zonal deputy commissioners to help prepare the databank.

“May kindly direct the concerned to collect the same from every employee under your control and feed the information by August 13,” says the letter, dated August 11, of which The Telegraph has a copy.

“There will not be an extension of this date, being time-bound requirement by Prime Minister’s Office….”

Not surprisingly, the deadline has been missed. A senior officer said the task would be completed by the end of this month.

Source: The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140821/jsp/nation/story_18743020.jsp