Centre Admits Employees Not Happy With Minimum Pay Recommended Pay Commission

New Delhi: Central government has admitted that central government employees are not happy with the minimum pay, which has been recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission.

The recommendation of the Pay Commission will be included in the budget but will not see the minimum pay Rs 18,000.

The commission findings of pay hikes of central government employees were published in November, with a promise of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to include the increase the pay hikes of central government employees in the budget in this month.

All trade unions and central government employees associations are unhappy with the proposed increase of minimum pay.

Some of the unions and associations had called for the minimum pay to be increased to Rs 26,000, while another wanted it raised to Rs 24,000.

Yesterday, the Finance Ministry official, works with implementation cell, said the minimum pay will be increased to “a balanced compromise”, while trade unions have said the increase should be made to good enough.

The Economists claimed minimum pay increase would cripple government finance as pay of all central government employees will be hiked on the basis of minimum pay, which also against the Pay Commission recommendations.

One of the famous economists, who requested to remain anonymous said , “policy decisions must be based on hard evidence, not aspirations. It is deeply frustrating to see important policy decisions being made in the absence of the necessary economic evidence.”

“There is no justifiable economic argument for increasing the minimum pay beyond the pay panel. It is sad to say but the only reason for the increase is political survival in the upcoming election of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in April-May,” he added

The Finance Ministry official said, “the evidence based approach, which is used by the Finance Ministry indicates that the Indian Economy can sustain a modest increase in the minimum pay of central government employees, without causing harm to other government businesses.”

Accordingly, the government determines to to hike Basic salary at least Rs 20,000 from Rs 18,000 recommended by the Seventh pay commission,

The The Seventh Pay Commission recommended raise in basic pay, a key segment that determines several allowances, is only 14.27 per cent – the lowest in 70 years. The previous commission had recommended a 20 per cent hike, which the government doubled while implementing it in 2008.

TST

Cashless Health Insurance For Elderly Likely In Budget

New Delhi: Government is working on a cashless health insurance scheme for senior citizens which may be announced in the upcoming Union Budget 2016-17.

Around Rs 10,000 crore – lying unclaimed in banks and insurance companies, EPFO and small savings schemes — would be utilised for providing the health insurance cover to the elderly, sources said.

Senior citizens are often dependent on their children or extended families for healthcare, they said, adding that the proposed scheme will help in meeting secondary and tertiary health care needs.

The quantum of insurance cover would be more than Rs 50,000 for person over 60 years.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the central budget for the next financial year on February 29.

The proposed scheme will be administered by the Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry.

The government proposes to link this scheme to bank accounts of beneficiaries to directly transfer the subsidised amount to the accounts. As per the proposal, the government would subsidise the premium for those below poverty line by up to 90 per cent through cash transfers to their bank accounts.

It’s not that the government will forfeit these unclaimed funds, sources said, adding that if claimants come forward they will be paid because the fund would be revolving in nature, sources said.

Health insurance scheme for senior citizen would be a logical extension of the ongoing low premium life insurance (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana), general insurance (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) and pension plan (Atal Pension Yojana) of the government, sources said.

The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana offers a renewable one-year life cover of Rs 2 lakh to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-50 years, covering death due to any reason, for a premium of Rs 330 per annum.

The Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana offers a renewable one-year accidental death-cum-disability cover of Rs 2 lakh for partial/permanent disability to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-70 years for a premium of Rs 12 per annum per subscriber.

The Atal Pension Yojana focuses on the unorganised sector and provide subscribers a fixed minimum pension of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000 or Rs 5,000 per month, starting at the age of 60 years, depending on the contribution option exercised on entering at an age between 18 and 40 years.

PTI

Government proposes to strike down several “irrelevant” laws

Press Information Bureau 
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

20-February-2016 17:25 IST

Government proposes to strike down several “irrelevant” laws: Dr Jitendra Singh 

Aims to achieve the goal of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’

Addressing a meeting of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to review the action plan for the year 2016, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that Government plans to strike down “irrelevant” laws by repealing or revoking more than thousand existing ones as a part of its mission to achieve the goal of minimum government and maximum governance.

Reiterating the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call to do away with avoidable laws and rules, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Government will abolish several of the existing laws which have ceased to be relevant in the present date and time. Disclosing that as many as 1053 laws are pending for Parliament approval to be repealed, Dr Jitendra Singh said about 649 laws have been sent and circulated among Ministries and States for comments and the process of repealing or revoking them will be carried forward after obtaining the comments of the concerned Ministries and Departments.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the DoPT proposes to reduce the number of tribunals from 36 to 17 and at the same time, reduce or restructure as many as 685 autonomous bodies/institutions during the year 2016. In the times to come, the DoPT will also chalk out a possible plan for exit of Government sectors from hospitals, air services etc and a sunset clause will also be attached to every new scheme.

In a bid to ensure ease of governance, Dr Jitendra Singh said that a mechanism will be worked out wherein the information already available on the official websites or official portals is not to be asked for through RTIs etc, in order to reduce the pendency and workload accruing from such queries. While the work on simplified one-page form and self-attestation of certificates has already begun, the DoPT is also working out the feasibility of issuing the Residence/Domicile certificates as well as SCs/STs/OBCs certificate at primary age to every child by class 5, he added.

Shri Sanjay Kothari, Secretary DoPT and senior officers of the Department were present at the meeting.

Move to rate staffers on this count creates flutter in bureacracy 

The "integrity"of central government employees will now be under watch.

A confidential circular by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked all officers of the rank of joint secretaries and above to rate the integrity of their subordinates.

The move forms part of reforms and making bureaucracy more accountable and functional. The intergrity report will be part of the annual confidential appraisal reports (ACARs).

The ACAR is designed to adjudge the performance of government servants every year in the areas of work, conduct, character and capabilities.

The ratings will be "beyond doubt, doubtful, most doubtful".

The circular has created a flutter within bureaucracy. Many officials told dna that it has not defined the integrity.

It has also asked supervisory officers to maintain a confidential diary to note the integrity and actions of subordinate staff, and consult this diary when filing the integrity column in the ACARs.

The filing of ACARs, which starts on March 31, has to be completed by May 23.

"Officers have been asked to make a note in the diary about instances that raise suspicion about the integrity of a subordinate and the action taken to verify the truth," said a senior central government official.

It further says that senior officers till the rank of secretaries should also note the action taken by supervisors while making confidential departmental inquiries or referring the matter to the police for further action.

Though a clause of integrity was incorporated in the ACAR some years back, reporting officers were not making a clear and categorical noting.

Now, with clear classification in the columns, they will have to report and rate the integrity of staff, said a DoPT official.

Meanwhile, Union minister of state in-charge of DoPT Dr Jitendra Singh said that the government will soon devise an institutional mechanism for the welfare and utilisation of the vast resource pool of pensioners.

At present, there are more pensioners than serving employees, he said. Retired employees need to engage themselves and contribute to government initiatives like educating people to use the accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya and Kaushal Vikas Yojana etc as per their interests, he suggested.

Source : http://www.dnaindia.com

Proposed revision of Recruitment Rules (RRs) of Staff Car Driver (Special Grade) Group 'B'- regarding To view, please CLICK HERE. 

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Breif on meeting held on 19th Feb 2016

Breif on meeting held on 19th Feb 2016

NJCA

NATIONAL JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION,

4, STATE ENTRY ROAD, NEW DELHI-110055

No.NJCA/2016 Dated: 19.02.2016
Dear Comrades,

Sub: Brief of the NJCA meeting held on 19.02.2016 with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance (Government of India), reg. 7th CPC recommendations  and Charter of Demands of the NJCA

A meeting of the NJCA held today with the Convener, Implementation Cell, Ministry of Finance, Shri R.K. Chaturvedi, wherein we discussed and emphasized on all the 26-point Charter of Demands of the NJCA send to the Cabinet Secretary on 10.12.2015.

We agitated the issues of NPS, Minimum Wage, Multiplying Factor, deduction of HRA and all other important issues.

The Convener, Implementation Cell, Shri Chaturvedi, after hearing everybody, said that, he would put-up the issues to the Cabinet Secretary, and hopefully a meeting of the JCA would be held with the Cabinet Secretary and the Empowered Committee shortly within 15 days.

Let us not leave any stone unturned for preparations of the strike.

With best wishes 

 (Shiva Gopal Mishra) 

Convenor