Important news from CHQ

Dear Comrades,

Editorial - December 2011

ON THE SADDLE AGAIN

No one can dare to dispute the fact today that there is great frustration amongst the Postal employees, due to the protracted delay and lethargic disposal of agreed demands in strike charter of July 2011. When we issued strike notice, the whole mechanism of Postal service had activated and worked. After called off the strike in the wake of definite assurances by the head of the department, again the red tapism and usual lethargy in disposing the genuine agreed demands is revived. 

Secretary, Department of Posts & Member had agreed during the negotiations to reduce the cash norms to GDS from Rs. 20000/- to Rs. 10000/-. It was agreed for causing orders protecting full wages for GDS in cases of reduction of workload. It was assured that the casual labourers engaged prior to 1993 will be provided with new pay scales within a month and for others it will be considered subsequently. There are many such items, if you go through the agreement, you could see. Whether any of them was brought in to action by issue of orders? 

The proposal of cadre review was mooted by us during 2008. Time frames have been fixed twice and the latest is before 30.10.2011. Two informal sittings were over. Thereafter, static silence is prevailing. When the Department initiated fifth cadre review for IPS officers now, will it not its duty to finalise the first cadre review for the poor Postal operative cadres. Will not the anger agony and anguish prevailing among the so called system administrators be felt by the powers? 

It was the agreement that there will be no closure of RMS offices or post offices. This was reiterated more than thrice in all the recent three agreements. But the Chief PMG Maharashtra abolished two sections arbitrarily. The staff went on strike. When our leaders discussed with the Directorate, and in turn the senior officer telephoned the Chief PMG in the presence of them, he was replying that he will not restore and if need be he may be transferred from the circle. The Directorate replied what to do? If they could not control the circle head, what is the need for higher bodies and agreements and all those? Are they really not having teeth or is it an enactment of drama already decided to play to deceive us? 

When there is an agreement that there will be no closure of Post offices and in case of inevitable circumstances simultaneous opening of post offices will be ensured, willfully, it is being denied by some PMGs for which there is no action or intervention from the Directorate. What prevented them to issue clear cut instructions on this score? 

The Sub PM once punished with minor penalty is not entitled to work as SPM in whole career. No one shall be posted to one B/C class office as SPM more than once in whole career. All these orders are issued by vigilance section as preventive measures. Alright! Whereas the Chief PMG who involved in corruption and caught red handed by CBI is now reposted as Chief PMG, West Bengal with the same financial powers authorities and all privileges. No such yardsticks as applied to postmasters are smeared to such officers. Even though it was agreed to cancel both the vigilance orders on SPM postings, nothing is moving so far because they are poor postal Assistants and not the bureaucrats. 

For the first time, based on stiff position of the Hon’ble Minister, the cluster policy for officers was introduced in the Postal service. Now they are seeking opinions among the same officers about the same cluster policy. For what? Just to dilute or withdraw the same in favour of them. We are not objecting? Nor least bothered? But why not the same spirit is not being extended in causing orders in the cases of agreed items in the strike charter? 

Training centers are institutions which will motivate the trainees and refresh them. What is going on PTC Madurai? A lady officer who is a sadist and not having an inch of humanity and very notorious for her topsy turvy activities is posted and ruining the atmosphere? The Nazi regime of Hitler is revived in the PTC and the authorities to control the atrocities and highhandedness are remaining as silent spectators. While posting in charges for training centers, is it not the prerequisite to select polite, gentle and firm officers who could motivate the staff with kindness and advices. Whether the training centers can be improved by the sadists and egoistic characterized persons? 

In many divisions, Circles, the departmental orders and instructions are grossly violated. Many new recruited officers never care the Rules and regulations and simply dictate their dictums. There is no check on them. There is no refresher training to them on human management and the criterion to adhere the Government of India orders with consecrated look. Their topsy turvy activities are not being controlled by the Circle heads. 

Without minding the cost of expenditure and inconvenience to staff, one PMG is opening post offices on Sundays just for booking two or three speed post articles. The counter working hours have been enhanced to 10 to 11 hours of a day. We don’t know whether he knows the concept of Night post offices. He never calculates the loss incurred due to opening of POs, staff, wages, electricity etc. This is nothing but to appear in the press daily with some new announcements which are all not worthy and lead loss to the department. 

There are very many similar to these episodes. As the social Audit Panel and also the Fifth Pay Commission right pointed out that the existence of Director posts are white elephants, it is nothing but creating two power centers in region and the sufferers and victims are the employees at large. This is an introspection of the events and shape of things that are required to be judged in the right perspective. 

Never – the – less, we are trying our level best not to resort to direct action and settle the issues by talks unless such an action is forced upon us callously by the powers – that – be. The present situation is entirely undesirable and it cannot be allowed. There can be no justification for continued increase in the misery of the workers due to protraction in settlement of their demand! We should not be pushed into wall once again to restart and revive agitational programmes.

Will the authorities understand our feelings and act swiftly to avert further action?

Meeting with CGM (PLI)

Based on our request, the CGM (PLI) invited for a meeting on 21.11.2011 at 11.30 hours. Com. K. V. Sridharan, General Secretary & Com. Balwinder Singh Financial Secretary attended the meeting. The following are the outcome after discussion.

1. Decentralisation of PLI/RPLI at divisional level

At the outset we recorded our apprehension that the decentralization of PLI/RPLI should not result to the similar fate of RD/MIS decentralization now ended in chaos as the decentralization was made without providing proper infrastructure, staff etc. The following are further discussions and decisions on the subject. 

i) All the divisional offices have been supplied with one computer one UPS and one Printer exclusively for the PLI/RPLI work from the PLI funds recently. The Staff side’s demand to provide minimum three computers exclusively for this purpose will be considered by consulting the technology division of the Directorate. Meantime, the requirement will be called for from the circles.

ii) All the D.O staff and supervisory staff will be imparted adequate training on PLI functions as requested by the staff side.

iii) The claim cases, discontinued policies etc will be dealt only at RO/Circle level. In respect of other regular sanctions on maturity and also for loan and revival cases necessary safety software have been provided.

iv) All Circle heads will be addressed to provide adequate arrangements to keep the records intact either in the divisional office or any one of the departmental building in case if sufficient accommodation at D.O is not available. Our concern that what happened at the time RD/MIS decentralization in respect of SB3cards & other records should not be repeated was well taken note of.

2. Man Power & Compensation

i) Creation of adequate staff to deal the works will be considered. Diversion of surplus staff will also be considered.

ii) The staff side demand to convert the present honorarium with annual ceiling of Rs. 4000/- as incentive without ceiling has been accepted. It was assured to cause orders at the earliest.

iii) The staff earlier drafted from the divisions to manage the PLI/RPLI work to circle office will be returned back to their home divisions.

iv) Incentive for the work performed by Accounts branch staff for PLI/RPLI schedule preparation will be decided shortly. 

3. Honorarium/Incentives to Field staff and GDS: 

i) We explained the delay in payment of incentive bill to GDS for procurement of RPLI and lengthy proceedure being adopted in each division on verification of bills. The CGM immediately pointed out that orders have already been issued for simplification of procedure for sanction of incentive to all including GDS.

1. All Staff including GDS will be allotted a specific code number to each category of PLI/RPLI. Required software is already dispatched and it should be maintained at divisional level.

2. The incentive amount has been enhanced for RPLI business procured on or after 1.10.2009 by the divisional head @ of 10% of first year premium income and 2.5% of premium income subsequently. The incentive shall be paid on monthly or quarterly basis. There is no need to prepare any bill. The payment shall be made automatically by the divisional head.

We reacted that in no circle, automatic payment of incentive is being made as per our notice. The CGM informed that 42008 departmental employees and 48621 GDS officials have registered under the system.  

Finally it is agreed to issue reminders to all circle heads to first register the code and effect payment of incentive automatically to the concerned SPM/BPM. A time frame for the extension will be decided. 

It is most pertinent to mention that the RPLI incentive has been raised to three folds and this is not being implemented in many circles. 

All Branch/Divisional/Circle Secretaries are requested to ensure registration of code number and automatic payment of incentives to GDs brethrens and other comrades. 

The CGM assured that he will immediately initiate action through Secretary’s video conferencing to complete the process at the quickest possible time. 

ii) We demanded that the enhancement of free business from 4 crores to 9 crores for D.O PLI be revised for which there is no agreement. The CGM replied that it is based on the inflation which is inevitable. 

4. Other Issues

i) We brought the discrimination in the maximum limit of PLI policy to physically challenged officials. The CGM replied that has been clarified vide Gazette notification dt. 27.05.2011 and enhanced the limit to Rs. 10 lakhs. After hearing the practical problems, the CGM assured to send one clarification to all circle heads and give the address and e-mail address of the consulting Actuary, Delhi for deciding the premium for such cases.

ii) It is told that the demand of providing more bonus or lesser premium to staff for their own PLI policies could not be possible as per the existing scheme unless we launch a separate scheme with lesser bonus for lesser premium.

Iii) We pointed out about non receipt of circulars from PLI Directorates since 2008. It was instructed to note down all the recognized unions in the mailing list for supply of PLI/RPLI circulars. 

We recorded our thanks to Sri. Shekar K. Sinha, Chief General Manager, PLI Directorate for arranging such a meeting and discussed all the issues put forth by us over two hours. 

Kayveeyes, General Secretary 

7 Important PLI Directorate Orders:

1. Payment of PLI Premium at anywhere in the country, D.O No. 27-02/2010-11 Dated - 27.01.2011
2. Use of Postal outlet for sale/collection of premium of other insurance Companies, No. 24-26/2003-LI dt. 20.09.2010

3. Timely payment of incentives to the Agents/GDSs - DO No. 7-04/Pt/2010-LI Dated - 04.10.2010
4.  Payment of Incentive to DO (PLI) - No. 25-4/2002-LI Dated 19.05.2011

5. Clarification on Payment of PLI Incentive - No. 6-3/2008-Li (ktk) dt. 02.06.2011.
6. Offline feeding of RPLI Proposals - No. 39-1/2009-LI (Part) Dated 06.05.2011.
7. Payment of Incentive to RPLI Sales Force - No. 35-15/78 (PLI) Dated. 06.10.2010

RECRUITMENT RULES POSTAL ASSISTANTS/SORTING ASSISTANTS-2011

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS HAS NOTIFIED RECRUITMENT RULES, 2011 FOR POSTAL ASSISTANTS AND SORTING ASSISTANTS, THESE HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL GAZETTE ON 3.11.2011.

No. 37-47/2010-SPB-I

Government of India

Ministry of Communications & IT

Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan, New Delhi-110001

Dated: 18.11.2011. 

1. All Chief Postmaster General.

2. Postmaster General.

3. The Director, PSCI, Ghaziabad. 

Subject: Framing of Recruitment Rules in respect of Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants in Department of Posts. 

Sir/Madam,

I am directed to forward herewith a copy of revised Recruitment Rules dated 3.11.2011 for the Posts of Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants in Department of Posts notified in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II Section 3, Sub-section (i) dated 3.11.2011. 

It is requested that the provisions of Recruitment Rules may be brought to the notice of all concerned.  

Yours faithfully,

Sd/- (Alka Tewari) Assistant Director General (SPN)

Encl: As above.

Small Savings interest rates hiked- Ministry of Finance orders dt.11.11.2011

No. 6-1/2011-NS.II (Pt.)

Ministry of Finance

Department of Economic Affairs

(Budget Division)

                                                  New Delhi, the 11th November, 2011. 

OFFICE MEMORANDUM 

Sub: Decisions on the recommendations of the Committee for Comprehensive Review of National Small Savings Fund (NSSF). 

The Thirteenth Finance Commission in its Report had, inter alia, recommended that all aspects of the design and administration of the NSSF be examined with the aim of bringing transparency, market linked rates and other much needed reforms to the scheme. As a follow up of this recommendation, the Government had constituted a Committee on 8th July, 2010, headed by Smt. Shyamala Gopinath, the then Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India for comprehensive review of NSSF. The terms of reference of the Committee included review of the existing parameters for the small saving schemes in operation and recommend mechanisms to make them more flexible and market linked; review of the existing terms of the loans extended from the NSSF to the Centre and States and recommend on the changes required in the arrangement of lending the net collection of small savings to Centre and States; review of other possible investment opportunities for the net collections from small savings and the repayment proceeds of NSSF loans extended to States and Centre; review of the administrative arrangement including the cost of operation; and review of the incentives offered on the small savings investments by the States. 

2. The Committee submitted its report to the Government on 7th June, 2011. Comments/views of Department of Posts, Department of Revenue, Department of Financial Services, Department of Expenditure and all State/Union Territory Governments were sought on the recommendations made by the Committee. 

3. The recommendations of the Committee have been considered in detail, taking into account the views/comments received from other Departments, States/UTs and representations received from various agents’ associations and others. After detailed examination the following decisions have been taken:-  

Rationalisation of Schemes: 

(i) The maturity period for Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and National Savings Certificate (NSC) will be reduced from 6 years to 5 years. 

(ii) A new NSC instrument, with maturity period of 10 years, would be introduced.

(iii) Kisan Vikas Patras (KVPs) will be discontinued.

(iv) The annual ceiling on investment under Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme will be increased from Rs. 70,000 to Rs..1 lakh.

(v) Interest on loans obtained from PPF will be increased to 2% p.a.from existing 1% p.a.

(vi) Liquidity of Post Office Time Deposit (POTD) – 1, 2, 3 & 5 years – will be improved by allowing pre-mature withdrawal at a rate of interest 1% less than the time deposits of comparable maturity. For pre-mature withdrawals between 6-12 months of investment, Post Office Savings Account (POSA) rate of interest will be paid. 

Interest Rates on Small Savings Instruments : 

(i) The rate of interest paid under Post Office Savings Account will be increased from 3.5% to 4% p.a.

(ii) The rate of interest on small savings schemes will be aligned with G-Sec rates of similar maturity, with a spread of 25 basis points (bps) with two exceptions. The spread on 10 year NSC (new instrument) will be 50 bps and on Senior Citizens Savings Scheme 100 bps. The interest rates for every financial year will be notified before 1st April of that year.

(iii) Assuming the date of implementation of the recommendations of the Committee as 1stDecember, 2011 the rate of interest on various small savings schemes for current financial year on the basis of the interest compounding/payment built in the schemes, will be as given below:- 

Instrument	Current Rate (%)	Proposed Rate (%)
Savings Deposit	3.50	4.0
1 year Time Deposit	6.25	7.7
2 year Time Deposit	6.50	7.8
3 year Time Deposit	7.25	8.0
5 year Time Deposit	7.50	8.3
5 year Recurring Deposit	7.50	8.0
5-year SCSS	9.00	9.0
5 year MIS	8.00 (6 year MIS)	8.2
5 year NSC	8.00 (6 year NSC)	8.4
10 year NSC	New Instrument	8.7
PPF	8.00	8.6

 (iv) Payment of 5% bonus on maturity of MIS will be discontinued. 

Commission to Agents

(i) Payment of commission on PPF schemes (1%) and Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (0.5%) will be discontinued.

(ii) Agency commission under all other schemes (except MPKBY agents) will be reduced from existing 1% to 0.5%.

(iii) Commission at existing rate of 4% will continue for Mahila Pradhan Kshetriya Bachat Yojana (MPKBY) agents.

(iv) Incentives, if any, paid by the State/UT Governments will be reduced from the commission paid by the Central Government.

Investments from NSSF : 

(i) The minimum share of States in net small savings collections in a year, for investment in State Governments Securities, will be reduced from 80% to 50%. The remaining amount will be invested in Central Government securities or lent to other willing States or in securities issued by infrastructure companies/agencies, wholly owned by Central Government.

(ii) Yearly repayment of NSSF loans made by Centre and States, will be reinvested in Central and State Government securities in the ratio of 50:50.

(iii) The period of repayment of NSSF loans by Centre and States will be reduced to 10 years, with no moratorium.

(iv) For the current financial year the prevailing interest rate of 9.5% will continue. From 1st April, 2012 revised interest rate will be notified.

(iv) Half yearly payment of interest by the Centre and the States will be introduced.

(v) Interest rate on existing investments from NSSF in Central Government securities till 2006-07 will be re-set at 9% and on those from 2007-08 till 2010-11 will be re-set at 9.5%. 

Operational Issues of NSSF

(i) A Monitoring Group drawn from Ministry of Finance, Reserve Bank of India, Department of Posts, State Bank of India, other select banks and select State Governments will be set up to resolve various operational issues like reducing the time lag between collection and investment, etc.

4. Necessary notifications, including those requiring amendments to rules of various small saving schemes and National Small Savings Fund (Custody & Investment) Rules, 2001 will be notified separately. The above decisions will take effect from the dates to be specified in the notifications.

5. This has the approval of Finance Minister.

(Shaktikanta Das) Addl. Secretary to the Govt. of India