Wednesday, November 12, 2014

7th Pay Commission visit to Hyderabad from 18th to 20th November, 2014

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Commission’s visit to Hyderabad
The Commission, headed by its Chairman, Justice Shri A. K. Mathur, proposes to visit Hyderabad from 18th to 20th November, 2014. The Commission would like to invite various entities/associations/federations representing any/all categories of employees covered by the terms of reference of the Commission to present their views.

Your request for a meeting with the Commission may be sent through e-mail to the Secretary, 7th Central Pay Commission at secy-7cpc@nic.in. The memorandum already submitted by the requesting entity may also be sent as an attachment with this e-mail.


The last date for receiving request for meeting is 17th Nov. 2014 (1700 hours).

Source:http://7cpc.india.gov.in/news06.html



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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Central Civil Services (Leave Travel Concession) Rules, 1988 Relaxation to travel by air to visit NER/ J&K and A&N.

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BHARATIYA PRATIRAKSHA MAZDOOR SANGH

(AN ALL INDIA FEDERATION OF DEFENCE WORKERS)
(AN INDUSTRIAL UNIT OF B.M.S.)
(RECOGNISED BY MINISTRY OF DEFENCE, GOVT. OF INDIA)

REF: BPMS / DoP&T/ LTC / 50 (7/2/R)
Dated: 10.11.2014
To,
The Joint Secretary (E),
Govt of India, Min of P, PG & P,
Department of Personnel & Training (Establishment Wing),
North Block, New Delhi - 110001

Subject: Central Civil Services (Leave Travel Concession) Rules, 1988 Relaxation to travel by air to visit NER/ J&K and A&N.

Reference: DoP&T O.M. No. 31011/3/2014-Estt.(A-IV), dated 26.09.2014

Respected Madam,

With due regards, it is submitted the Govt has issued the OM. cited under reference to travel by air to visit NER, J&K and A&N but the para (iii) of the OM. restricts the facility for Group ‘B’ employees, which is reproduced as under:-

i) All eligible Government servants may avail LTC to visit any place in NER/A&N/J&K against the conversion of one block of their Home Town LT C. Fresh Recruits are also eligible for this benefit against conversion of one of the three Home Towns in a block of four years applicable to them.

(ii) Government servants entitled to travel by air can avail this LT C from their Headquarters in Economy class.

(iii) Government servants not entitled to travel by air may be permitted to travel by air in Economy class in the following sectors:

a. Between Kolkata/ Guwahati and any place in NER
b. Between Kolkata/ Chermai/ Bhubaneswar and Port Blair.
c. Between Delhi / Amritsar and any place in J&K

Journey for these non-entitled employees from their Headquarters up to Kolkata/ Guwahati/ Chennai/ Bhubaneswar / Delhi / Amritsar will have to be undertaken as per their entitlement.”

It is worth to mention here that earlier instruction on the subject matter issued vide DoP&T F.No. 31011/412007-Estt.(A), dated 02.05.2008 stipulates as under:

“The undersigned is directed to say that in relaxation of CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988, the Government have decided to permit Government servants to travel by air to North Eastern Region on LTC as follows:-

(i) Group A and Group B Central Government employees will be entitled to travel by Air from their place of posting or nearest airport to a city in the NER or nearest airport,
(ii) Other categories of employees will be entitled to travel by air to a city in the NER from Guwahati or Kolkata.

From above it is being interpreted that earlier the Group ‘B’ Central Government employees were entitled to travel by Air from their place of posting or nearest airport but now only eligible Government servants may travel from their place of posting or nearest airport.

Further, vide DoP&T F.No. 31011/4/2007-Estt (A), Dated 30.04.2012 the Air travel relaxation under LTC for NER was extended for 02 yrs from 01.05.2012, i.e., applicable upto 01.05.2014 and vide DoP&T F. No. 31011/2/2003-Estt.A-IV, dated 15.06.2012 the Air travel relaxation under LTC for J&K was extended for 02 yrs from 18.06.2012, i.e., applicable upto 18.06.2014 whereas this order grants the relaxation for air travel w.e.f. 26.09.2014.

There are some of the employees who have travelled by Air under LTC in the intervening period, i.e., 01.05.2014 / 18.06.2014 and 26.09.2014 in anticipation of extension of such relaxation as per prevailing practice. To mitigate the financial hardships of such employees, the DoP&T O.M. No. 31011/ 3/ 2014-Estt.(A-IV), dated 26.09.2014 should have retrospective effect, i.e., 01.05.2014.

Therefore, you are requested to issue necessary clarification so that the Group ‘B’ employees may be entitled to travel by Air from their place of posting or nearest airport and reimbursement claim submitted by the employees who have travelled by Air under LTC in the intervening period, i.e., 01.05.2014 / 18.06.2014 and 26.09.2014 may be allowed as one time relaxation.

Thanking you.
Sincerely yours

SADHU SINGH
Member, National Council (JCM)

Copy to: The Leader / Secretary, Staff Side, National Council (JCM)
For your kind information and necessary action please.

Source: http://bpms.org.in/documents/ltc-nffq.pdf
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Income-tax Offices throughout the country shall remain open on 15th November (Saturday)

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F.No.225 / 298/ 201 14/ ITA.II
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, the 11th of November, 2014
Order under Section 119(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961

The Income-tax Offices throughout the country shall remain open on 15th November (Saturday), during normal office hours, for conducting the administrative work related to implementation of the restructuring of jurisdictions across the country which is coming into effect from 15th November, 2014.

This direction is issued for administrative convenience by the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the same may be brought to the notice of all concerned.

sd/-
(Rohit Garg)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India

Source: http://irsofficersonline.gov.in/Documents/OfficalCommunique/111112014113746.pdf
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REVISION OF CEILING RATES FOR INTRA OCULAR LENSES(IOL)

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Central Organisation, ECHS
Adjutant General's Branch
Integrated Headquarters
Ministry of Defence (Army)
Maude Lines
Delhi Cantt-110010
B/49773/AG/ECHS/Rates/Policy
28 Oct 14

REVISION OF CEILING RATES FOR INTRA OCULAR LENSES(IOL)

1. Ref Central Org ECHS letter No B/49773/AG/ECHS/Rates/Policy dt 10 Jan 11.

2. The following amendments is hereby made on the basis of CGHS OM No 536/2012/R&H/CGHS dt 21 Aug 14 to Para 16 of Appx ‘C’ of above mentioned letter:-

For
(a) Hydrophobic Foldable IOL - Rs. 5,000/-
(b) Silicon Foldable IOL - Rs. 3,600/-
(c) Hydrophilic Acrylic Lens - Rs. 5,800/-
(d) PMMA IOL - Rs. 490/-

Read
(a) Hydrophobic Foldable IOL (Multi-piece/Single piece Aspheric) - Rs. 5,800/-
(b) Hydrophobic Acrylic IOL - Rs. 4,500/-
(c) PMMA IOL (AC/PC) - Rs. 500/-
(d) Scleral Fixated IOL - Rs. 3,500/-

3. Reimbursement for LASIK Surgery and INTACS Rings is not recommended.

4. Therapeutic and Bandage contact Lenses for Keratoconus of Corneal Ulcers can be considered on a case to case basis.

5. Further, reimbursement for IOL Implants will be limited to ceiling rates or actual, whichever is less and will be reimbursable in addition to the package rates for cataract surgery procedure. The reimbursement at the above mentioned ceiling rates will be done as per the rates fixed for the various types of IOL mentioned above and the lOL actually used in the surgery. It is mandatory for the operating surgeon of all private empanelled hospital/ECHS beneficiaries to attach the empty IOL sticker, bearing the signature and stamp of the operating surgeon on it, along with the bill in support of type of IOL used, containing its batch number. In the event of the private empanelled hospital not giving the batch number and/or empty IOL sticker, then the beneficiary will be required to obtain the
same from the hospital before the competent authority finally settles the claim for reimbursement.


(Vjay Anand)
Col
Dir (Med)
for MD
Source: http://echs.gov.in/images/pdf/med/med113.pdf

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Monday, November 10, 2014

Allocation of Portfolios amongst the members of the Council of Ministers

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The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed that the allocation of portfolios amongst the members of the Council of Ministers shall be as below:-

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space; All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister

CABINET MINISTERS

1. Shri Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs

2. Smt. Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

3. Shri Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Information & Broadcasting

4. Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs

5. Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

6. Shri Manohar Parrikar: Defence

7. Shri Suresh Prabhu: Railways

8. Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Law & Justice

9. Sushri Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

10. Dr. Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs

11. Shri Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

12. Shri Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

13. Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi: Women and Child Development

14. Shri Ananthkumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers

15. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology

16. Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare

17. Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation

18. Shri Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

19. Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries

20. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel

21. Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation

22. Shri Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs

23. Shri Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture

24. Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment

25. Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development

26. Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Science and Technology, Earth Sciences



MINISTERS OF STATE

27. General V.K. Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

28. Shri Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Defence

29. Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge)

30. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya: Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)

31. Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs

32. Shri Shripad Yesso Naik: AAYUSH (Independent Charge), Health & Family Welfare

33. Shri Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)

34. Shri Sarbananda Sonowal: Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)

35. Shri Prakash Javadekar: Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)

36. Shri Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)

37. Dr. Jitendra Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space

38. Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)

39. Dr. Mahesh Sharma: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), Civil Aviation

40. Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs

41. Shri Ram Kripal Yadav: Drinking Water & Sanitation

42. Shri Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Home Affairs

43. Shri Sanwar Lal Jat: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

44. Shri Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya: Agriculture

45. Shri Giriraj Singh: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

46. Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Chemicals & Fertilizers

47. Shri G.M. Siddeshwara: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

48. Shri Manoj Sinha: Railways

49. Shri Nihalchand: Panchayati Raj

50. Shri Upendra Kushwaha: Human Resource Development

51. Shri Radhakrishnan P.: Road Transport & Highways, Shipping

52. Shri Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs

53. Shri Krishan Pal: Social Justice & Empowerment

54. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture

55. Shri Manuskhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs

56. Shri Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

57. Shri Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel

58. Shri Sudarshan Bhagat: Rural Development

59. Prof. (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria: Human Resource Development

60. Shri Y.S. Chowdary: Science and Technology, Earth Science

61. Shri Jayant Sinha: Finance

62. Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Information & Broadcasting

63. Shri Babul Supria (Babul Supriyo) Baral: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

64. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Food Processing Industries

65. Shri Vijay Sampla: Social Justice & Empowerment

Source:http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=0
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Saturday, November 8, 2014

Enrolment for Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBA)

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Government of India
Ministry of Railways
(Railway Board)

Office Order No. 66 of 2014

Sub: Enrolment for Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBA)

Hon’ble MR has directed that all personnel of the Ministry of Railways, Rail Bhavan (including those located at Pragati Maidan) shall enroll on the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System.

2. In this regard, the spadework for enrolment on the system has been completed by the C&IS directorate and the system is now ready to be used for user enrolment.

3. It is now required that all the personnel of Ministry of Railways working In the offices of Rail Bhawan and Pragati Maidan are to enroll themselves afresh directly on the website http://attendance.gov.in/regester/employee

4. For the said enrolment process, all the Section Officers are responsible for enrollment of staff, including MTS and others working under them and the officers of the level of Under Secretary/Deputy Directors and above may enrol themselves on the website on their own. After registration, all EDs shall forward a list of the personnel enrolled n their Directorate giving the information to C&IS through email as per annexure in a spreadsheet via email. Officers above the level of SAG may send their report directly through their PPS/Sr.PPS/PSO.

5. The detailed process for enrolment is enclosed which may be followed while enrolling. The said process of enrolment of all officers/staff under AEBAS should be completed latest by 18.10.2014 (Saturday).

6. For any clarification/ assistance, the following personnel of the Railway Board Computer Centre may be contacted:

1. Sh. Krishan Kant, Programmer, Cell No. 9717635888

2. Sh. Navneet Kr Saxera, Sr Programmer, Cell No. 9717 647095

3. Sh. Akhilesh Misra, Dir. Mech Engg (C&IS), Cell No. 9717640768

2014/O&M/9/3
Dated: 15.10.20 14

sd/-
(K.Krishnan)

Joint Secretary/Railway Board

Source:http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/uploads/directorate/secretary_branches/pdf/om/Aadhar_Card_161014.pdf














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COPY OF CHARGE-SHEET CANNOT BE DENIED UNDER RTI ACT: CIC

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The CIC Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu held on 3rd November 2014 that ‘charge-sheet’ has to be disclosed after separating non-disclosable portions, if any, as per restrictions prescribed under RTI Act. Ms. Usha Kanth Asiwal sought to know from Director of Vigilance Delhi, details of complaint made to Anti Corruption Bureau on 25-04-2001 and  inquiry leading to registration of case against 13 persons under Prevention of Corruption Act, which is now under prosecution in Tis Hazari Courts. She sought 22 point information, which broadly relate to contents of the Charge-sheet.

The PIO denied the information u/s 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act claiming disclosure would impede investigation or prosecution.  The First Appellate Authority upheld the decision of the PIO.  She approached the Commission in second Appeal. Though demand was not for copy of charge-sheet, the appellant agreed that a copy of charge-sheet would answer his application. Then issue before the Commission was whether charge sheet was public document, and if so could that be shared under RTI Act with any citizen.

CIC Prof Sridhar Acharyulu explained: ‘The charge sheet is a report held by the investigating officer, or public authority or court of law. As per the RTI Act, any information held by the public authority can be accessed by the citizen subject to the exceptions provided under Section 8. Because the charge-sheet contains the evidence which need to be adduced in the court of law, there is a possibility of opening up many details which could be personal or private or confidential. If the allegation requires to be proved by call data, the charge sheet refers to sheets of call data, which surely contain call details unrelated to allegation. That could be private information need to be protected. Hence each charge sheet has to be separately examined and only after separating unnecessary and unrelated details of evidence, and only required and permissible information out of chargesheet should be disclosed. Thus Charge-sheet can neither be prohibited enbloc from disclosure nor disclosed totally. Charge-sheet is a document held by concerned authority, which has to examine disclosable aspects vis-a-vis Section 8 and 9 of the RTI Act and then decide the case’.

As per the Criminal Procedure, the charge-sheet is the end product of investigation. With filing of charge-sheet, the investigation is closed and defense that investigation might get impeded does not stand at all.    Whether revealing the information impedes apprehension or prosecution is the next question. The Respondent authority did not even raise this point and did nothing to explain the Commission about possibility of impeding apprehension/prosecution by disclosure.  The Public Authority just mentioned the section number and did nothing else. The First Appellate Authority also did not apply the mind and chose not to give any reasons for upholding the denial by PIO. The exemption of larger public interest provided in Section 8(1) is not available to this clause (h). Thus it has to be decided on facts whether disclosure of charge-sheet will really obstruct investigation, apprehension or prosecution. The judgment of the Delhi High Court in W.P.(C) No.3114/2007 – Shri Bhagat Singh Vs. Chief Information Commissioner & Ors on this aspect is of relevance, since it deals with the applicability of the Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act 2005: S Ravinder Bhat J specifically notes, “As held in the preceding part of the judgment, without a disclosure as to how the investigation process would be hampered by sharing the materials collected till the notices were issued to the assessee, the respondents could not have rejected the request for granting information. …”

It can be inferred that there is no specific provision anywhere prohibiting the disclosure of charge-sheet and if there disclosure does not affect investigation or prosecution it can be permitted under RTI, unless there is a public interest against disclosure. The chargesheets containing charges under Prevention of Corruption Act, especially against public servants, need to be in public domain, in public interest.

Citing several decisions the CIC said: There is no specific provision under any law which state that charge-sheet is a public document, but there are several judgment of the Supreme court and High court which clarify that charge sheet is a public document. Queen-Empress v. Arumugan and Ors ( (1897) ILR 20 Mad 189) has held that any person has an interest in criminal proceeding has a right to inspect under section 76 of the Indian Evidence Act. In N David Vijay Kumar v The Pallavan Gram Bank, Indian Bank in File No. CIC/SG/A/2012/000189 CIC Mr Shailesh Gandhi ordered disclosure of Charge sheet ruling out the contention of exemption under Section 8(1)(j).

On the perusal of the RTI application, the Commission found that the  information sought by the applicant are the part and parcel of the information contain in the charge-sheet prepared after the completion of the investigation under section 173 of Cr. P. C. The purpose of the appellant will be served if the copy of the same would be provided to the appellant. The respondent authority also agreed to provide the copy of charge sheet.

Considering the provisions of Cr.P.C., Evidence Act, RTI Act, erudite judicial pronouncements, certain transparency practices in CVC,  facts and circumstances of the case and contentions raised, the Commission holds that the charge sheet is a public document and it shall be disclosed subject to other restrictions provided under RTI Act. There cannot be a general hard and fast rule that every charge-sheet could be disclosed or should not be. Each RTI request for copy of Charge-sheet required to be examined and only permissible part should be given.  The Commission, hence, directed the respondent to examine the content of charge-sheet and to provide appellant/… the copy of those portions of charge-sheet, which would answer the queries raised by appellant in his RTI application, within 3 weeks from the date of receipt of the order.

Source:confederation blog
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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Applicability of Old Pension Scheme to Substitutes who attained temporary status prior to 01.01.2004

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA (BHARAT SARKAR) 
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (RAIL MANTRALAYA) 
(RAILWAY BOARD) 

No. 2012/F(E)III/1(1)/2
New Delhi, Dated: 29.10.2014. 

The GMs/FA&CAOs,
All Indian Rauways/Production Units.
(As per mailing list)

Subject: Applicability of Old Pension Scheme to Substitutes who attained temporary status prior to 01.01.2004 but regularized after 01.01.2004 - clarification regarding.

The issue of coverage of substitutes who had attained temporary status prior to 01.01.2004 but regularized after 01.01.2004 under Old Pension Scheme, has been raised by both the recognized Federations (A1RF & NFIR) under PNM.AIRF item No.05/2012 and PNM/NFIR item No.15/2011 respectively. The issue has also been raised under DC/JCM (Railways) item No.20/2012.


2. The issue has been examined by Board and it has now been decided that substitutes who got temporary status prior to 01.01.2004 but regularized/absorbed after 01.01.2004 and after regularization, if the date of appointment is prior to 01.01.2004, in terms of provision of Board's letter No.E(NG)ll/90/SB/Master Circular dated 29.01.1991(M.C. No.20/91) and para 6 of letter No.E(NG)11/2008/SB/SR115 dated 17.09.2010, then they may be covered under Old Pension Scheme.

3. Further, the employee and employer contribution of the NPS corpus of the Substitutes, mentioned in para 2 above, who so far have been covered under the National Pension System (NPS) may be adjusted in terms of the instructions contained in Board's letter No.2010/AC-11/21/18 dated 31.03.2014(RBA No.5/2014)

4. Please acknowledge receipt.

(Amitabh Joshi)
Deputy Director Finance( Estt.)III)
Railway Board. 

Source: http://www.airfindia.com/Orders%202014/RBE%20121_2014.pdf


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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Rotational Transfer Policy applicable to CSS Officers

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No.21/2/2009-CS.I(P)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
Department of Personnel and Training
CS.I Division

2nd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan,
Khan Market, New Delhi-110003

Dated the 3rd November 2014

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject : Rotational Transfer Policy applicable to CSS Officers -Review of the policy reg.

The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department’s O.M. of even number dated 21.10.2014 inviting comments from the stakeholders on the rotational transfer policy proposed for CSS officers. In the rotational transfer policy, a provision for mutual transfer is also proposed to be added as under:

2. “Mutual Transfer Request for mutual transfer of officers may be considered by the Department of Personnel & Training subject to the following conditions:

(i) Both of the officers applied for mutual transfer should have completed at least 50% of the tenure prescribed for the post;

(ii) The request has been recommended by the Secretary of the Departments concerned.”

3. The comments if any on the rotational transfer policy may be submitted before the last date prescribed i.e. by 7.11.2014 in the e-mail address given below.

(Srinivasaragavan)
Under Secretary to the Government of India

EMAIL: uscs1-dopt@nic.in

Source-http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02csd/rtp_03112014.pdf


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