Centre Considers Including Cruise Tours Under Leave Travel Concession Scheme

Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma today said presently only 0.40 per cent of the tourists in India opt for cruise tours, while India's share in the global cruise tourism market is 0.68 per cent. (File Photo)

MUMBAI: Aiming to increase cruise tourism, the Centre is mulling to include vacations on luxury ships under the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) scheme where government employees get their travel costs reimbursed.

"We are looking at including cruise tours under the LTC scheme. Employees can go on cruise ships at government expense," Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Suman Billa said during a session on tourism at the Maritime India Summit here today.

He said such a move will shore up the sagging numbers of tourists opting for cruise tours and will be a huge boost for the sector.

Mr Billa said for the five years between FY10 and FY14, there has been a 14 per cent decline in the number of tourists opting for cruise tours in the country, a trend the government wants to reverse.

In FY10, there were 55,000 domestic and 1.35 lakh foreign tourists who boarded cruise ships, which dropped to 45,000 and 70,000, respectively, in FY14, he said.

Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma today said presently only 0.40 per cent of the tourists in India opt for cruise tours, while India's share in the global cruise tourism market is 0.68 per cent.

The government is targeting to take this up to 1 per cent by 2020 and further to 2 per cent later.

Most Indians "have a craze" towards cruise tourism, he said, adding that special emphasis has been laid on cruise tourism in the last 18 months.

Mr Billa said a task force set up in November 2015 to increase cruise tourism is looking at various aspects, including developing infrastructure, simplifying procedures, increasing marketing and communication activities, and incentives and commissions.

The move to include holidays on cruise ships under the LTC is also one of the proposals the task force, chaired by tourism secretary and co-chaired by the shipping secretary, is looking into, he said.

Mr Billa said India is best placed to take advantage of cruise tourism as it stands close to a busy route for cruise ships between the Middle East and South East Asian countries.

Extension for filing returns for the year 2014 and 2015 under section 44 of Lokpal & Lokayuktas Act, 2013 last date 31.7.2016

Click here to view Department of Personnel and Training Gazette notification dated 11-04-2016.

NFPE & FNPO P3 unions dharna on CBS & McCamish problems on 12-04-2016

Ongole Division

Narasaraopet Division




Many of Divisions held dharna in good manner. The circle union congratulates all the activists for making it as grand success. All Divisional and branch secretaries are requested to organize Min 10 members to participate in the Dharna to be hled at Circle office on 22/4/2016.

Empowered committee may recommend a minimum wage of Rs 20000/- or Rs 21000/- against the demand of Rs 26,000/ of the staff side: CoC Karnataka

Empowered committee may recommend a minimum wage of Rs 20000/- or Rs 21000/- against the demand of Rs 26,000/ of the staff side: CoC Karnataka 

Comrades, 

There are various reports on 7th Central Pay commission on the media on fitment formula, arrears being paid as bonds , these reports are totally wrong and unwanted , these confuse the Central Government Employees, if you read the below table it is quite clear that a Group “C” employee shall get. 

The true picture, as per the 7th CPC recommendations has provided only at 14% wage hike at Group “C” level it is only ranging from Rs 2240 to Rs 3500/ increase per month, and at Group “B” level ranging from Rs 4000 to Rs 6500/ increase per month. 

The Empowered Committee is likely to rectify and change the fitment formula in that case , As per media reports the committee may recommend a minimum wage of Rs 20000/- or Rs 21000/- against the demand of Rs 26,000/ of the staff side , the Central Government Employees (Group “B” & Group “C” ) and shall get a salary increase of just Rs 4000/ to Rs 16000/- only , that is also too meager considering the aspect of price rise and modern day expenditures, Secondly arrears of six months if the 7th CPC is implemented shall be only Rs 8000/- per month on average per employee per month , for six months it will just at Rs 50000/- per employee only , this amount will not affect the Central Government finances , 

So don’t believe any news paper reports, Secondly there is no change in allowances expect HRA, that too its rates are reduced by the 7th CPC and also many allowances have been withdrawn. This is saving for the Government. 

Hence we should not bother too much on these reports, instead we should educate the members and prepare for struggle, so that we get at least get a minimum wage of Rs 24,000/- ( 50 % wage hike without allowances) , as allowances are not taken into pension benefit. 

Comradely yours 

(P.S.Prasad) 

General Secretary

Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers Karnataka State

Introduction of New Scheme SSA - circulation of revised notification regarding

POSB Order No. 3/2016 Introduction of New Scheme SSA - circulation of revised notification regarding

SSA Gazatte Notification : View / Download

SB Order 03/2016 PDF : View / Download

DA Orders - Revised rates effective from 01.01.2016: Department of Post Order

Discontinuing the existing scheme of relaxation of standard in favour of SC/ST Group C officials including MTS in the limited Deptl competitive Exams

Click here to view Postal Directorate letter no 4-13/2015 - SPB - I dated 08.04.2016 on the above subject matter.

My Postman App launched by DoP not Only introduces residents to their Postman, but also allows them to order Stamps And Envelopes

Gurgaon: There is no need to visit the post office any more. You can now get postage stamps and envelopes delivered at your doorstep.

A new mobile app, launched by the postal department, not only introduces residents to their postman, but also allows them to order stamps and envelopes. Once residents enter their area, the app, called My Postman, throws up the name, number and photo of that area's postman.

"We realised since that fewer people stay at home, they do not get to know their postman unlike earlier. Hence we thought of using technology to introduce customers to their postman," said Umesh Verma, postmaster general, Gurgaon. "Once the customer has the credentials, he can coordinate with the postman while awaiting delivery of important documents like passports," he added.

Along with this, all postmen have been asked to carry smart phones so that they can home deliver stamps and envelopes, which residents can order through the app. The third party app was developed over six months and can be downloaded for free on the Google playstore.

Rates on small savings schemes may fall further

       Interest rates on small savings schemes are set to fall further in the next few quarters with yields on government bonds coming down. Last month, while revising the rates, the government had said the returns will now be benchmarked to government bonds and reviewed once every three months.

     RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's monetary policy on Tuesday brought down yields on government securities marginally. The returns on government bonds are set to drop further as the RBI moves to improving liquidity in the money market.

     According to India Ratings, interest rates on small saving schemes in the second quarter (July-September) of 2016-17 fiscal are likely to be 20-25 basis points lower than in the first quarter (100 basis points = one percentage point). This is because of the measures announced by Rajan in his policy this week to improve liquidity. The new rates came into effect from April1and resulted in a rush for investments in the last week of March.Small savings directly compete with and offer higher rates than fixed deposit schemes of banks. Rajan said that the rush for small savings and tax-free bonds resulted in a slower growth in deposits. He said the new rates continued to be attractive and may need to come down further.

Source:-The Economic Times

Technical Resignation and Lien - Consolidated guidelines.

To view Department of Personnel & Training OM No.28020/1/2010-Estt(C) dated 08-04-2016 please Click Here. 

Attestation Form for verification of character and antecedents prior to appointment in Government service - regarding.

To view DOPT Letter to UPSC for dispensing away with the Identity Certificate please Click Here.

DA raised 6% wef 1.1.2016 orders by Finance Minster

Revision af Pension of Pre-2006 Pensioners - Delinking of Revised Pension from qualifying service of 33 years - DoPT Order

Vague News about implementation of 7th CPC recommendation is Posted in Internet

Any news about implementation of 7th pay commission recommendation is the Hottest topic of discussion at all offices of Central Government. To encash this interest of cg servants, all the Media has focused on publishing vague news about latest development in 7th pay commission. To what extent it is true is debatable issue. But whatever the news posted in Social Media and News Media about the seventh CPC recommendation never missed to draw the attention of cg employees.Just two lines are enough to make a hot news to publish to attract the attention of viewers. Readers has to verify whether the news published on pay panel report is true or not.A news published recently in a Reputed News Website says that the Empowered Committee would propose Minimum Pay Rs.20000/-.The article states, “According to reports, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS) is planning to propose a minimum pay of Rs 20,000 instead of Rs.18,000 as proposed earlier”.But there was no point in that article that on which basis the minimum pay would be fixed at Rs.20000/-. These type of imprecise news are keep coming in many news blogs now.The NCJCM Staff side said that the ECoS has just observed the concerns raised by them in the Meeting. They insisted that Minimum Pay should be raised to Rs 26000/- instead of Rs 18000. In fact, is was told that the ECoS has not been given any power to commit any thing on modifying the recommendations.The next one is the news about implementation date of 7th Pay commission recommendations.The Central Government has already appointed a High Level Committee to review the recommendations and the Meeting with Stakeholders are being held recently. Whenever it completes its task it will prepare a report and it will be sent to Cabinet Committee of Ministers. Only after the approval of the Cabinet Committee, Notification in this regard may be issued. The committee has not been given any time frame to complete its work.But the Social and News Media are flooded with the news about the date of implementation of 7th CPC recommendations. Starting form May 21st, June, July and up to September 2016 are the dates suggested by the Media to implement the Pay panel report. It appears that they are all mere cooked up stories.The only reliable sources to tell about the decision of Government are NCJCM Staff Side and Government Officials. But None of them so for made any statement about tentative date of issuing Notification for implementation of pay commission. So let us wait sometime to know the actual development and hope it will be come out soon.

Joint Circular by AP PCJA on CBS & Mc Camish issues - All are requested to make the programme a grand success

Agitation programme by AP PJCA on CBS/Mc.Camish problems

ALL INDIA POSTAL EMPLOYEES UNION GROUP’C’

NATIONAL ASSOCITION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES GROUP’C’

Andhra Pradesh CIRCLE

HYDERABAD 500 020

Andhra Pradesh/PJCA/2016                                                                       6-4-2016

To

The Chief Postmaster General ,

Andhra Pradesh Circle,

Hyderabad 500 001

Respected Sir,

Sub:  Non settlement of problems arising due to introduction of CBS & Mc. Camish soft wares in POs    

           -regarding.

          We have already brought to the notice of  Chief Postmaster General the problems which are being faced by staff in the Circle after implementation of CBS& Mc.Camish  softwares which are not working to the tune of the work in POs.

            In spite of several requests till date no action has been  initiated by the administration to solve the problems. In this background we are left with no other alternative except to take decision to resort to trade union action.

            As such the following programme of action was decided.

     1)  On 12-4-2016 Mass Dharna  at  all Divisional offices.

     2)   On 22-4-2016 Mass Dharna  at Chief Postmaster General office.

            If the problems are not settled by that date further course of action will be decided on 22-4-   

            2016.

            As such Chief Postmaster General is requested to take appropriated steps to settle the   

             problems.

                                                        Thanking you Sir

                                                                              Yours faithfully

                  DASVPRASAD                                                                                             V.SIVAJI

                Circle Secretary                                                                                          Circle Secretary

                 AIPEUGr’C’                                                                                                 NAPE Gr’c’

union declaration form to be submitted before 31.4.2016

Annexure-II

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS – IT

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS INDIA, SR SECTION

LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION

To

The Superintendent of Post Offices,

………………………………………………… Division,

………………………………………………………………..

                        Through  the DDO/ Postmaster………………………………………… HO

            I, …………………………………………………………………………………(Name and Designation) being a

member of ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

hereby authorize for deduction of monthly subscription of Rs.50/- (Rupees Fifty only) per month from my salary starting from the month of July-2016, payable on 31.7.2016 and authorize it’s payment to the above mentioned service Association.

            I hereby certify that I have not submitted authorization in favor of any other service Association. If the above information is found incorrect, I fully understand that my authorization for the Association becomes invalid.

Station:                                                                                    Signature:

Date:                                                                           Name of the member & Designation

To be filled by the Association

            It is Certified that Sri/Smt……………………………………………………………………………..

Is a member of ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

            It is further certified that, the above authorization has been signed by

Sri/Smt.............................................................................................. in my presence.

Signature:                                                                                            Signature;

Name in capitals of member                                                  Name in capital of authorized office bearer  ( Divisional Secretary)

Drawal of TRCA to GDS sustitutes and payment of wages on Holidays and allowing Weekly off - Guide lines

Modernization of Service Book

Click here to view full details

Four monthly meeting with CPMG AP Circle

The four monthly meeting with FNPO is going to conduct on 19.4.2016 at 11.15am. Sri G.Nageswararao Working president and Sri V.Sivaji CS are attending the meeting. Member are requested to bring the problems to the notice of Circle union leaders to discuss with CPMG as an out of Agenda. 

List of Services to be covered under RICT

Following are the services available in the Rural ICT project. The handheld device supplied to the Branch Post offices has the capabilities to do the following services in the BO itself without depend the account office.

1. Maintenance of Rural Branch Post Office accounts.

• Cash Management -enable BPM to view/update beginning-of-the­ day and end-of-day cash balances
• Accountability of sumps and Postal stationary
• Transaction Management

2. Financial Banking at Rural level.

• Opening of new account (Small Savings Scheme & No- frills)
• Account Deposits and Withdrawals
• Electronic Money Order (eMO) Disbursement & Booking
• MGNREGS Enrollments & Disbursement

3. Insurance Service at Rural level

• New Enrollments
• Claims and loan payment
• Printing renewal premium receipts for the customer

4. New Retail Services

• Phone recharge coupons
• Sale of application forms e.g. passport forms
• Reservations of train and air tickets
• Sale of books
• Commission\Fee collection
• E-commerce (give orders\view commodity rates)
• Retail channel for other\private players

5. Mail Service at Rural level

• Booking & Delivery of registered articles
• Speed Post Booking & Delivery

6. Assist Government of India

• Data Collection
• UIDAI enrollment
• Other Government Welfare Schemes\Services
• Provide detailed MIS reports and management dashboards

Tags: DOP News , Technology News

Rotational Transfers in the cadre of Postmaster Grade I R.O, Vijayawada has ordered the following rotational transfers in the cadre of Postmaster Grade - I vide RO memo no ST-I/PM Grade-I/RT/2016 dated 04.04.2016.

Sl no	Name and present post	Transferred to the SPM post of
1	R.Anil Kumar, SPM, Kankipadu	Chilakalapudi
2	K.Sudhakar, SPM Chilakalapudi	Pedana
3	K.Sinivasarao, SPM, Parchur	Kankipadu
4	U.Ramesh, SPM, Bitragunta	Atmakur(Nellore)
5	M.Amala, SPM, Nandigama	Jaggaiahpet
6	O.Venkateswararao, SPM, Tiruvuru	Nandigama
7	K.V.N.S.S. Murthy, SPM, Pedana	Parchur
8	V.Anil babu, SPM, A.K.Nagar(Nellore)	Bitragunta
9	Y.Rambabu, SPM, Atmakur	A.K.Nagar (Nellore)
10	K.Nageswaarao, SPM, Jaggaiahpet	Tiruvuru

Minimum pay under 7th CPC likely to be revised to Rs 20,000; award to come with increment bonanza

New Delhi: The central government employees seeking revision of salary structure proposed under the 7th Pay Commission are likely to see around 19 percent raise on the minimum salary being drawn currently. The Cabinet nod to the effect is expected in June.

As per reports, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS)are likely to propose a minimum pay of Rs 20,000. The 7th pay panel report, which was released in November had raised the minimum pay to Rs 18,000 per month from currently drawn Rs 7,000, while the maximum pay was recommended Rs 2.5 lakh per month from Rs 90,000.

The central government unions, seeking the revision in 7th pay panel recommendations have sought the minimum pay of Rs 26,000

As per reports, the 7th CPC award is likely to come with salary increment which was anyway due in the month of July.

The financial burden of the 7th CPC recommendations on the exchequer is expected to be around Rs 1.02 lakh crore in meeting the revised pay structure. The central government has already made provision of Rs 70,000 crore in the Budget 2016-17 to meet the payout of the pay commission award.

Since the minimum pay has been revised upwards, the 7th pay panel has recommended that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the new Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

The Commission also recommended that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent respectively when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent. However, no arrears will be paid on the HRA, and will be effective only when the pay panel award is notified.

Read at  http://zeenews.india.com/business/personal-finance/money-matters/good-news-minimum-pay-under-7th-cpc-likely-to-be-revised-to-rs-20000-award-to-come-with-increment-bonanza_1871595.html

Interesting Facts About India Post

 India has the largest postal network in the world with 1,54,939 post offices as on March 31, 2015, of which 1,39,222 (89.86%) are in the rural areas. At the time of independence there were 23,344 post offices.

Following are some interesting revelations from India Post’s annual report 2015-16.

1. The government has decided to digitise 1.5 lakh post offices across the country, which includes 1.3 lakh post offices in rural areas.
2. One can buy exclusive collection of postal stamps offered by India Post on e-commerce websites like Snapdeal and Shopclues. Philatelic products are also available at e-post office – an e-commerce portal of India Post. Through its e-commerce portal, India Post also provides select postal facilities using the web. The department has generated revenue of Rs 24.31 lakh between April 2015 and December 2015 by selling postal stamps. 
3. India is one of the earliest active members of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a specialised agency of the United Nations, having its headquarters at Berne, Switzerland. 
4. There are more than 33.03 crore account holders of the savings scheme of the department.
5. The outstanding balance under all the savings schemes and saving certificates in Post Offices are over Rs 6,19,317.44 crore.
6. Money transfer service of India Post enables instant international money remittance to customers in India sent from 195 countries on real time basis. This service is operational in association with Western Union from 9,942 post office locations and MoneyGram through 6,070 post office locations.
7. To ensure safe and timely delivery of goods, the department has signed an agreement for supply and installation of GPS devices in 990 mail vans. GPS devices have already been installed in 926 mail vans.
8. India Post ATMs have been installed in more than 500 locations across the country.
9. The department has earned revenue of Rs 2,247 crore during the period April 2015 to December 2015 registering a growth of 15% compared to corresponding period last year.
10. The department has 38 heritage buildings having architectural value. 

Discontinuation of physical pre-printed NSC and KVP certificates

To view Department of Economic Affairs (Budget Division) OM No.01/04/2016-NS-II dated 1st April, 2016  please Click Here.

Meeting with the Implementation Cell of the Department of Post on 31.03.2016 on the background of different views of the Department on various dates on postal issues

Central Civil Services (LTC) Rules, 1988 - Fulfillment of procedural requirements - reg.

To view please Click Here.

Validity period of OBC Certificate in respect of creamy layer status of the candidates.

To View please Click Here.

Attestation form for verification of character and antecedents prior to appointment in Government service

The Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has examined the matter related to the proposal for making attestation process citizen friendly. In this regard, it has been decided to place a note on the proposed reforms on the DoPT's website for comments. The comments on the above subject are invited within 15 days.

Click here for Office Memorandum