Employment exchanges to get a makeover

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya today said that the National Employment Exchanges have turned into mere registration centres for the unemployed and the Centre is working to change it to national career council centres. 

The Centre would provide Rs 292 crore for the purpose when the exchanges are tranformed to provide employment- related services on the national career service portal, he said here. 

The portal would be launched in March next year and would also host 100 model career centres and vocational rehabilitation centers, Dattatreya said. 

Under the Apprentice Protsahan Yojna launched in October, the ministry of labour and employment would support one lakh apprentices in the next two and a half years and share 50 per cent of the stipend. 

"We have a vision to have more than 20 lakh apprentices in the next few years against the present number of 2.8 lakh. In fact enhanced rates of stipend have also been notified for trade apprentices and the minimum rate of stipend per month payable has been indexed to minimum wage of semi-skilled worker," Dattatreya said. 

It was the ministry's sole motto to bring in workers in the unorganised sector under Employees Provident Fund and a special drive has already been launched in Shram Suvidha portal which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October. 

The ministry, Dattatreya said, has also launched Project Panchdeep to bring in efficiency and transparency and accountability in different operations of the Employees State Insurance Corporation besides initiating recognition of prior learning (RPL) for construction workers. 

"We have more than 4.2 crore workers with low-skill level. Under the RPL scheme we have started to give 15-day gap-training at site to unskilled labourers for the National Council for Vocal Training (NCVT) certificate. A provision of hourly wage compensation of Rs 35 is also there under it," he said.

Source:-The Economic Times

Department of Posts Launches Some More IT Based Services on Good Governance Day

On the occasion of Good Governance day today, the Department of Posts- “India Post” showcased some of the web based services which would be beneficial to the citizens of India. 

It participated in the exhibition organized by the Ministry of Communications & Information technology. The “India Post” pavilion showcased following initiatives:

The usage of hand held device which would be used by village Postmaster. All types of transactions related to the services of Post will be offered through the wireless hand held device in rural post offices under the ongoing IT project. 

(ii) My Stamp counter was set up where any individual who desires, can get customized stamp made which could also be used as postage. 

(iii) The monitoring of mail transmission under MNOP (Mail Network Optimisation Project) and of Project Arrow Offices through web based tools was displayed.

(iv) The functioning of e-Post Office- a virtual Post Office where an individual can do postal transaction was also on display. 

(v) A pilot connecting weavers of Varanasi with e-commerce was started today at Varanasi and its portal was displayed in the exhibition in Delhi. Under the Pilot, Department of Posts and M/s Snapdeal, under the existing agreement of cooperation, will do hand holding of domestic manufacturers by helping them through post office in putting their products on the e-commerce platform. An ecommerce desk is set up in Varanasi Head Post Office where registration of weavers etc and uploading of their products would be facilitated. Management of orders received, payment processing, returns management would be done by Snapdeal. Packaging, if required, booking of articles and final delivery to online buyer would be undertaken by Department of Posts.

To mark the occasion the Minster of Communications &Information Technology Shri Ravi Shanker Prasad launched an e-Book and a pocket book on products and services of Department of Posts. He also announced the enhancement of maximum sum assured limit in Postal Life Insurance from 20 to 50 lakh rupees. Details are: 

e-Book

As part of the agenda to promote good governance through e-initiatives in the Department of Posts, an e-Book is being launched. This e-Book can be accessed directly on the India Post official website or by scanning a Quick Response (QR) Code Printed on a card. Details of the new initiatives of the Department of Posts, along with existing services are available on the e-Book. 

e-Pocket Book 

In order to provide an easy to carry reference book containing the details of all products and services of the Department of Posts in hard form, a Pocket Book is also being launched. This would be available in all post offices and shall promote Good Governance by making details of services and their rates available to the common man, in a simple, reader friendly and pocket sized format.

Postal Life Insurance:

The present maximum sum assured limit in Postal Life Insurance is Rs. 20 lakh per individual. In order to give benefit of greater insurance to the customers, upper insurance limit has been enhanced from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh. 

Source : PIB

Extension of last date for filing of revised returns by public servants-DOPT ORDER

No. 407/12/2014-AVD-IV(B)

Bharat Sarkar/Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

Department of Personnel and Training

New Delhi, the 25th December, 2014

Office Memorandum

Subject: Declaration of Assets and Liabilities by public servants under section 44 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 extension of last date for filing of revised returns by public servants who have filed property returns under the existing service rules - regarding

The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department’s D.O. letter of even No. dated 8th September, 2014 regarding the furnishing of information relating to assets and liabilities by public servants under section 44 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 and forwarding therewith copies of the Central Government’s notifications dated 8‘h September, 2014 containing
(a) amendment to the Lokpal & Lokayuktas (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2014, for the purpose of extending the time limit for carrying out necessary changes in the relevant rules relating to different services from “two hundred and seventy days” to “three hundred and sixty days”, from the date on which the Act came into force, i.e., 16th January, 2014; and

(b)the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Amendment Rules, 2014, extending the time limit for filing of revised returns by all public servants from 15th September, 2014 to 31st December, 2014
2. In this regard, the undersigned is directed to convey that the last date for filing of revised returns by public servants under the rules indicated in para 1 (b) above has been extended by a period of four months, i.e., from 31st December, 2014 to 30th April, 2015. Formal amendments to the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Rules, 2014 and to the Lokpal & Lokayuktas (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2014 are being notified separately. The formats for submission of statements regarding movable properties (Form-II) and for submission of statements regarding debts and liabilities (Form-IV) under the said rules are also being revised and will be notified as part of the amendments to the aforesaid rules. They will also be uploaded on the website of this Department, i.e., http://persminnic.in/DOPTasp.

3. All Ministries/Departments and cadre authorities are requested to kindly issue orders towards ensuring compliance with the revised Rules by all officers and staff in the respective Ministry/Department/ Organisations/PSUS under their control, within the revised time-limit mentioned therein.

(Jishnu Barua)

Joint Secretary to the Govt. of India

Source:http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02ser/lokpalassets.pdf

Can’t recover excess salary paid to class III, IV staff: SC

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NEW DELHI: Recovery of excess amount paid to Class-III and Class-IV employees due to employer's mistake is not permissible in law, the Supreme Court has ruled saying that it would cause extremely harsh consequences to them who are totally dependent on their wages to run their family. 

The apex court said employees of lower rung service spend their entire earning in the upkeep and welfare of their family, and if such excess payment is allowed to be recovered from them, it would cause them far more hardship, than the reciprocal gains to the employer. 

A bench of JS Khehar and Arun Mishra also directed that an employer cannot recover excess amount in case of a retired employee or one who is to retire within one year and where recovery process is initiated five years after excess payment. 

Give “New Year Gift” to citizens by permitting and publicising the use of ordinary Postal Stamps for payment of RTI fee: CIC’s recommendation to Department of Personnel and Training

Central Information Commissioner Prof. M. Sridhar Acharyulu has strongly recommended the use of postal stamps as RTI application fee. While disposing off a petition, he observed, “The Commission strongly recommends Department of Personnel and Training to adopt the one year old proposal of the Department of Posts, which is very user-friendly and avail the opportunity of giving New Year Gift to the citizen by permitting and publicising the use of ordinary Postal Stamps for payment of RTI fee, as this would go a long way in setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information.  Accepting postal stamps for RTI fee would resolve many difficulties in payment, besides preventing wastage of public money in returning or rejecting the IPOs or spending much larger amounts than Rs 10, for realizing Rs 10, and avoidable litigation.”

 

The Complainant, Shri Raghubir Singh is a senior citizen of 75-years old and a law teacher who is associated with the making of the  RTI Act before its enactment by the Government.  The Commission heard him on the telephone as desired by him.

 

The complainant complained that the Directorate of Education has harassed him by raising meaningless technical issues.  They had returned the Indian Postal Order of Rs.10/- saying that it is not properly drawn, when he claims to have rightly drawn in favour of the Accounts Officer.  The Complainant objected to the returning of the Postal Order by PIO by speed post, for which he had to spend more than Rs.25/-.  He complained that the Directorate has not updated its web-site and appropriate address against whom the Postal Order should be drawn or fee to be paid was not given.

The complaint was filed against the Directorate of Education had demanded information on 2 points: i) Which of the Government Secondary Schools in Delhi under the Directorate of Education,  have introduced Punjabi teaching as a third language for the first time afresh in class VI in the academic year 2010-2014; ii) the number of such students enrolled in Class VI, School-wise.

The Commission hence directed the PIOs to check up whether every school has properly replied to the RTI application, if not fulfil the deficiencies.  The Commisison also directed them to contact the Complainant on the telephone number given by him, and provide the complete information within 15 days from the date of receipt of this order.

The Commission referred to its earlier decision in S.C. Aggarwal vs. Ministry of Home Affairs wherein it had issued several directions. It had directed that, “no instrument shall be returned by any officer of the public authority on the ground that it has not been drawn in the name of a particular officer. So long as the instrument has been drawn in favour of the Accounts Officer, it shall be accepted in all circumstances” among several others.

These directions were mandatory and the Commission observed that non-compliance would lead to penalty proceedings. It observed, “The Commission finds it is a misuse of the power of PIO to reject to receive RTI application and the fee amounting to harassment of the applicant. It is also a kind of denial of information. Any kind of delay in furnishing of information on such grounds, violates the letter and spirit of RTI Act on several counts.”

In another second appeal by Mr. R.K. Jain as decided on 5th December, the CPIO of Department of Posts told the Commission that their department has given a proposal to DoPT vide letter dated 31.1.2014 suggesting that ordinary postal stamps could be used for payment of RTI fee.

The respondents, their PIOs and incharge officers were directed to update their official website immediately and send a compliance reprt to the Commission with a copy to the Complainant within 10 days from the date of receipt of the order. All the PIOs of

Directorate of Education and all other officers concerned were directed to accept the IPO without raising technical objections and follow all the directions issued by the full bench order of CIC.

They were asked to submit separate reports to the Commission explaining how many IPOs they have rejected so far and what are the grounds of rejection, from January 2014 to December 10, 2014, within 15 days from the date of reciept of the order.

A show cause notice was issued to the PIO who refused and returned the IPO of appellant as to why maximum penalty cannot be imposed against him for acting against the spirit of RTI and harassing the applicant and for not updating the official website.

Result of Postman / MTS Examination held on 14.12.2014 ( AP Circle )

The result of limited Departmental competitive examination for promotion to the cadre Postman/Mail guard and MTS held on 14.12.2014 has been declared.

CLICK HERE  FOR MTS RESULTS

CLICK HERE FOR POSTMAN & MAIL GUARD RESULTS

Incentive to the staff performing International Money Transfer Service (IMTS) transactions in the Post Offices

CLICK HERE TO VIEW DIRECTORATE  LETTER

Supreme Court ruled against recovery of excess pay due to employers' mistake

Recovery of excess amount paid to Class-III and Class-IV employees due to employer's mistake is not permissible in law, the Supreme Court has ruled saying that it would cause extremely harsh consequences to them who are totally dependent on their wages to run their family. 

The apex court said employees of lower rung service spend their entire earning in the upkeep and welfare of their family, and if such excess payment is allowed to be recovered from them, it would cause them far more hardship, than the reciprocal gains to the employer. A bench of JS Khehar and Arun Mishra also directed that an employer cannot recover excess amount in case of a retired employee or one who is to retire within one year and where recovery process is initiated five years after excess payment. 

"We are therefore satisfied in concluding, that such recovery from employees belonging to the lower rungs (i.e., Class-III and Class-IV - sometimes denoted as Group 'C' and Group 'D') of service, should not be subjected to the ordeal of any recovery, even though they were beneficiaries of receiving higher emoluments, than were due to them. Such recovery would be iniquitous and arbitrary and therefore would also breach the mandate contained in Article 14 of the Constitution," Justice Khehar, who wrote the judgment said. 

It said that the employer's right to recover has to compared, with the effect of the recovery on the concerned employee and if the effect of the recovery from the employee would be, more unfair, more wrongful, more improper, and more unwarranted, than the corresponding right of the employer, which would then make it iniquitous and arbitrary, to effect the recovery. 

"In such a situation, the employee's right would outbalance, and therefore eclipse, the right of the employer to recover," the bench said. 

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by Punjab government challenging Punjab and Haryana high court order restraining it to recover the excess amount paid by mistake to numerous employees over the years. 

It said we may, as a ready reference, summarize the following few situations, wherein recoveries by the employers, would be impermissible in law: 

(i) Recovery from employees belonging to Class-III and Class-IV service (or Group 'C' and Group 'D' service). 

(ii) Recovery from retired employees, or employees who are due to retire within one year, of the order of recovery. 

(iii) Recovery from employees, when the excess payment has been made for a period in excess of five years, before the order of recovery is issued. 

(iv) Recovery in cases where an employee has wrongfully been required to discharge duties of a higher post, and has been paid accordingly, even though he should have rightfully been required to work against an inferior post. 

(v) In any other case, where the Court arrives at the conclusion, that recovery if made from the employee, would be iniquitous or harsh or arbitrary to such an extent, as would far outweigh the equitable balance of the employer's right to recover. 

The court said a government employee is primarily dependent on his wages, and such deduction from salary should not be allowed which would make it difficult for the employee to provide for the needs of his family and any recovery must be done within five years. 

In this case, the employees were given monetary benefits in excess of their entitlement due to a mistake committed by a concerned competent authority, in determining the emoluments payable to them.

Source : Times of India

No reduction in retirement age

There is no proposal under consideration of Government to reduce the retirement age from 60 to 58 years for its employees. 

The retirement age for Central Government employees was revised from 58 to 60 years in 1997 on the basis of recommendations of the 5th Central Pay Commission. 

The Centre’s total wages and salaries bill for its employees for the year 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 is Rs. 85,963.50 crore, Rs. 92,264.88 crore and Rs. 1,04,759.71 crore, respectively. 

This was stated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Dr. T Subbarami Reddy and Smt. Ambika Soni in Rajya Sabha, today. 

Source : PIB

Interim Report of 7th Central Pay Commission – Official announcement of Finmin

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

                                                               MINISTRY OF FINANCE     

                                                                    RAJYA SABHA

              QUESTION NO 230

ANSWERED ON 25.11.2014

7th Pay Commission

230 SHRI SHANTARAM NAIK

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to satate :-a) the details of meetings, the 7th Pay Commission has taken so far and the items/issues discussed till date;

b) the States, visited, by the Commission if any till date and the States which the Commission proposes to visit;

c) whether the Commission proposes to take the views of the State Governments as regards their pay-scales since invariably, most of the States adopt the Central Pay Commission reports;

d) whether Commission proposes to submit any interim report;

e) whether the Commission proposes to make any recommendations to bring in financial transparency; and
f) if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER

SHRI JAYANT SINHA
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

(a)&(b): The 7th Central Pay Commission is required to make its recommendations on its Terms of Reference. Also, the Commission is to devise its own procedure. The Commission’s Terms of Reference do not enjoin upon it to keep the Government updated on its functioning and the procedure being followed by it during the course of its deliberations. 

(c ): The Terms of Reference of the Commission provide that the Commission will make its recommendations, keeping in view, inter alia, the likely impact of the recommendations on the finances of the State Governments, which usually adopt the recommendations with some modifications.

(d)to(f): The Commission is required to submit its report on its Terms of Reference. However, no Report, including any interim one, has so far been submitted by the Commission.

NATIONAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION of CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ORGANISATIONS PARTICIPATING IN JCM

CLICK HERE FOR DECISIONS OF STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING DATED 11.12.2014 FOR IMPLEMENTATION AT STATE LEVEL

Payment of salary in cash - option to DoP officials

List of closed Holidays/Restricted Holidays to be observed by both administrative and operative offices in A.P and Telangana States

Circle office vide CO Lr.No.Tech/Holidays/15 dated 01/12/2014 circulated the list of closed Holidays/Restricted Holidays to be observed by both administrative and operative offices in A.P and Telangana states.

Government to celebrate Good Governance Day on Christmas

Children may have been spared the need to compulsorily attend school onChristmas day, but bureaucrats may not be as lucky. The government is readying a plan to celebrate December 25 as 'Good Governance Day', possibly spoiling the holiday plans of many who had been looking forward to a five-day weekend. 
Minister of state for personnel and in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh, told ET on Monday that a plan is being finalised for activities for bureaucrats on December 25. "We are in the process of finalising a plan for government officials for that day," Singh said, effectively indicating that officials, especially senior ones, could end up having to attend office on what is a gazetted holiday. 

Revision of flat rate of licence fee for General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) throughout the country

Please CLIK HERE for orders 

Report of Shyamala Gopinath Committee on Small Savings Schemes

The Shyamala Gopinath Comrnittee constituted on Small Savings Schemes has submitted its report to the Government. Major recommendations of the committee were:- (i) to reduce/abolish agent`s commission except Manila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojana (MPKBY) agents to restrict management cost (ii) secondary market yields on Central Government Securities of comparable maturities should be the benchmarks for the interest on various small savings instruments and should be reset every 1st April (iii) Committee recommended to reduce minimum share for States from 80% to 50% against net collection and recommended that amount received on redemption of Central/State Governments securities should be reinvested between Centre and States in the ratio of 50:50. 

After detailed deliberation and in light of views received from State Governments, various Departments of Central Government and Agent`s Association, most of the recommendations of the Committee are being implemented. 

In view of developments observed by the Committee in 2011 on AML/CFT front the KVP was recommended to be discontinued by the Committee. KVP has been re-notified by the Government on 23-9-2014. Under the re-notified KVP the investor has to undergo the Know Your Customer (KYC) modalities at Post Office or Bank. 

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

Source:-PIB

Social Security Payments will be considered into BPM's Work Load

Consolidated instructions on suspension - Latest

Please CLICK HERE    to view Department of Personnel & Training OM No.11012/17/2013-Estt (A) dated 2nd January, 2014.

Free Treatment Facility for Children with Cancer

The treatment of children with Cancer in various Government Hospitals is either free or subsidized both for the Central and State Government Hospitals. Cancer can be diagnosed and treated at various levels in the Government health care system. Hence the number of such facilities for the States is not centrally maintained.

Government of India provides facilities for treatment of cancer through Central Government Hospitals/Institutions in different parts of the country such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjung Hospital, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, PGIMER Chandigarh, JIPMER Puducherry, Chittranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata etc. Oncology in its various aspects has focus in case of new AIIMS and many upgraded institutions under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY). The proposal of setting up of National Cancer Institute at Jhajjar and development of 2nd campus of Chittranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata has also been approved. 27 Regional Cancer Centres were recognized and supported under the erstwhile National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) for treatment of cancer patients.

In addition, Government of India has in the year 2013-14, approved a scheme for enhancing the Tertiary Care Cancer facilities in the country. Under this scheme (Tertiary component of NPCDCS), Government of India will assist 20 State Cancer Institutes (SCI) and 50 Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCC) in different parts of the country. The maximum assistance inclusive of State Share for SCI is Rs.120 crores and for TCCC is Rs.45 crores. The Central and State share will be in the ratio 75:25, and for North East and Hill States this ratio would be 90:10. Financial assistance to patients is also provided under the Health Minister’s Discretionary Grant and Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi.

The MoS, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha here today.

Source:http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=0

Agenda items for the Departmental Council meeting.

JCM National Council Staff side organisations will be organizing a National Convention of all Central Government Employees at New Delhi on 11.12.2014. Railway. Defence and Confederation will participate in the convention. Convention will adopt a joint declaration on future course of agitational programmes on the following demands of the Central Government Employees.

1.      Effect of wage revision of Central Government Employees from 01.01.2014 accepting memorandum of staff side JCM, Grant interim relief and merger of 100% DA, Ensure submission of the 7^th CPC report within the time frame of 18 months.

2.      Include the Gramin Dak Sewaks within the ambit of the 7^th CPC.

3.      No privatization or FDI in Railways and Defence establishments.

4.      No ban on recruitment/creation of Posts.

5.      No outsourcing, contractorisation and privatization of government functions. Withdraw the proposed move to close down the printing presses, stationery offices and Medical Stores Depots. Regularise the existing daily rated/casual and contract workers.

6.      Scrap PFRDA and restore the defined benefit statutory pension scheme.

7.      No Labour reforms which are inimical to the interest of workers.

8.      Lift the arbitrary ceiling on compassionate appointments.

9.      Revise the JCM functioning at all levels as an effective negotiating forum for settlement of the demands of the CGEs.

10.  Remove the bonus ceiling.

11.  Ensure five promotions in service career.

Hudhud Cyclone - Appeal from CPMG for voluntarily contributions

“Reducing the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 58 will help to solve the unemployment problem in India?”

“The Financial Express”, one of the leading newspapers recently published a news article on the Central Government’s plan to reduce the retirement age of employees from 60 to 58. This news shocked the central government employees.

“Reducing the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 58 will help to solve the unemployment problem in India?”

Reasons for decreasing the retirement age from 60 to 58:
The following reasons are attributed for decreasing the present age of retirement:

1) To create more employment opportunities for the youth

2) To increase the contribution of younger employees in the government sectors and

3) To compensate the loss accrued due to payment of allowances

Unemployment issue:

1. None can have any disagreement about the fact that employment opportunities should be provided for the unemployed. There are so many ways for solving the unemployment problem. They are:

1) Introducing new employment policies

2) Filling all the positions lying vacant and

3) Promoting self-employment by introducing new schemes and providing suitable facilities and many more ways can help to solve the problem of unemployment.

Increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 for scientists:
In the Rajya Sabha, for a question raised on increasing the retirement age for scientists from 60 to 62 in written format, the response given was: “it is under consideration”.
The important reasons for increasing the retirement age for scientists are:

1) Their experience and expertise should benefit the younger generation and

2) The average life span has increased.

“Isn’t there a need to increase the retirement age of employees working in other fields?”

Allowance issue:

Extra allowance that has to be paid is cited as a reason for bringing down the retirement age of employees from 60 to 58. However, in reality, the pay commission is set up only once in 10 years and benefits the central government employees.

“In the long interval of 10 years, only these allowances help the employees to cope with inflation”.

In the past, the average service period of a central government employee was 30 to 40 years. Presently, as the age limit for appointment has been relaxed, the average service period has come down to 20 to 30 years. Due to this, an employee can only have 2 or 3 pay commissions in his service period.

In this situation, citing allowance as a reason for decreasing retirement age and altering the present allowance rates will adversely affect the economic condition of central government employees.

Average retirement age in the world:

The average retirement age of many nations is between 63 and 65. Comparatively speaking, even the age of 60 is obviously a very early age for retirement. In this context, we do not know whether the employees will accept 58 as the age of retirement.

Will early retirement solve the unemployment problem?

Employment for all is a very important. It is the duty of a nation to provide employment to all her youth and lead them in a better way. The hope and aspiration of every youth in this country is to get a good job. They do not expect the retirement age to be brought down from 60 to 58.

Even when all the 50 lakh central government employees retire, will it help to resolve the unemployment problem of this nation ?   Read more at-geod.in

Post Offices not vulnerable to middlemen under MNREGA: Government

Government today dismissed suggestions that post offices in some states, particularly in village areas, are vulnerable to being captured by corrupt middlemen thereby denying wages to poor under rural job scheme MNREGA. 

"No," Rural Development Minister Birender Singh replied to a question in this regard, but said, "Some instances of operation of middlemen in payment of wages through post offices have been reported." 

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said the government proposes to address these issues by using biometric authentication system as in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand. 

He said post offices are preferred in some states due to their better reach in the rural areas. At present, there are only 68,000 bank branches in the rural and semi-urban areas of the country catering to over six lakh villages in the 2.47 lakh Gram Panchayats where MNREGAis operational, the minister said. 

"Consequently, there are significant number of Gram Panchayats which do not have bank branches within 5 km radius. Efforts are made to improve the reach of the banks in the rural areas using the Banking Correspondent model under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana," Singh said. 

Clarification regarding purchase / booking of Air Tickets, CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988- Relaxation to travel by Air to visit NER, J&K and A&N and FAQ

To view Department of Posts Letter No. 20-12/2014-PAP dated 11-11-2014 please CLICK HERE

Government launches special deposit scheme ( Sukanya Samriddhi Account ) for Girl child

NEW DELHI: The government has notified 'Sukanya Samriddhi Account', a new small savings instrument for the girl child that could be operated by her after the age of 10. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the scheme in his budget speech in July. 

The account can be opened and operated by the natural or legal guardian of a girl child till she attains the age of 10, after which she can herself operate it but deposits in the account may be made by the guardian or any other person or authority. 

The account could be opened in a post office or a public sector bank. A depositor may open and operate only one account in the name of a girl child under these rules after furnishing birth certificate of the girl child along with other documents relating to identity and residence proof of the depositor. 

Natural or legal guardian of a girl child will be allowed to open accounts for two girl children only except if the depositor has twin girls as second birth or if the first birth itself results into three girl children. 

The government will notify interest rate on this scheme every year. The account may be opened with an initial deposit of Rs 1,000 and the reafter any amount in multiples of Rs 100 may be deposited, subject to the condition that a minimum ofRs 1,000 will be deposited in a financial year but the total money deposited in an account on a single occasion or on multiple occasions shall not exceed Rs 150,000 in a financial year. 

Deposits may be made till completion of 14 years from the date of opening of the account, the notification said. The account shall mature on completion of 21 years from the date of opening of the account or if the girl gets married before that. 

Withdrawals up to 50% will be allowed prior to maturity for high education and marriage