Friday, 12 June 2015

Reservation Time Changed for Tatkal Booking – 50% Refund for Cancellation

Reservation Time Changed for Tatkal Booking – 50% Refund for Cancellation

“Changes will be brought in to the popular train ticket reservation system, which will put to shame the detractors who are insisting that it be privatized like BSNL”

It is not a simple task to travel 500 KM in just Rs.150.00! Autorickshaws charge Rs.25 per kilometer, and the fare is double during night times. The state governments can arbitrarily raise the bus fares as and when they feel. They give hundreds of reasons to justify these hikes. But, the concern they show for railway fares is surprising and baffling, to say the least.

The general public doesn’t mind paying more if they have to travel on short notice. But, these detractors feel that there has to be a guideline of sorts on how much more can be charged from them. The fact that the Centre has taken cognizance of these opinions is obvious from the reforms that are being brought to these systems.

The Tatkal Reservation facility’s timings have been changed. The decision has also been made to refund 50% of the ticket costs on cancellation.

Tatkal is a blessing for those who have to go on sudden journeys. That’s why there is a heavy demand for these tickets. Meanwhile, the Indian Railways announced that it is planning to run special Tatkal trains to ease the demand. The charges could be Rs.175 to Rs.400 more than the fares of normal trains.
Click to continue reading…

Thursday, 11 June 2015

No Objection Certificate (NOC) Not Required for Central Government Employees Seeking Passports

NOC Not Required for Central Government Employees Seeking Passports

Although the Government thinks that tough guidelines are not required for issuing passports, the new format seeks more personal information

Currently, passports for Central Government employees are issued only if they produce a general No Objection Certificate. In some Government offices, getting an NOC is very difficult. Keeping this in mind, the Ministry of External Affairs has advised that new procedures be followed instead of submitting an NOC.

According to the new procedure, the employee has to send prior information, about the fact that he has applied for passport, to the address of the senior officer who has to issue the NOC. If a copy of this correspondence is submitted along with the passport request form, then the passport will be issued after police verification. If the officer has objections to the passport being issued to the applicant, then he has to go to the regional passport office and register his objection and reasons. The procedure is applicable to persons seeking renewal of passports too.

Source: CGEN.in

NC JCM Staff Side - Meeting with the 7th Pay Commission Satisfactory

Meeting with the 7th Pay Commission Satisfactory – NC JCM Staff Side

“Members of the National Council JCM, which represents over 40 lakh Central Government employees all over India, met with the team of higher officials of the 7th Central Pay Commission on 9.6.2015”

It was revealed that the meeting with the 7th CPC was very satisfactory. By the end of August, the committee will submit its recommendations and from Jan 2016, the new pay scale, including all the allowances, will be implemented based on this report.

Elaborate discussions were held on crucial issues like Principles of wage determination and Minimum Wage & Ratio of Minimum and Maximum Pay. Also, popular demands like qualification related pay scales, and grant of increment to those retiring on June 30 and December 31, were also presented.

Issues over the fixing of pension parity between past and future pensioners. And the discrepancies in these methods and retirement benefits including revision of pension were also discussed.

JCM urged that the Need-Based Minimum Wage concept to compute pay at the minimum level may be adopted. Pay Commission should take into account the outside rates to determine the pay package at senior levels of bureaucracy but maintain the ratio between the minimum and maximum at 1 : 8 (MTS to Secretary to Govt. of India).

Staff side demanded open- ended pay scales to ensure that no employee stagnates without increment. We have suggested only 14 Pay scales. Minimum of which is Rs. 26000 and Maximum Rs. 78000 for Group C employees. We suggested that the multiplication factor (26000/7000 = 3.7) may be applied uniformly in all the cases to arrive at the revised pay in the new scales of pay. We also suggested that the benefit on promotion, therefore, should be: two increments in the feeder cadre.

A request was made to rectify the defects in the MACP scheme. NC JCM insists to grant five promotions in the service career. It should be given on their hierarchical basis.

Staff Side requested to remove the ceiling of Rs.3500 and request to recommend to the Central to grant the bonus on the basis of the actual emolument of the employee.

Aadhaar based authentication of Life Certificate for pensioners - Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd June, 2015

Aadhaar based authentication of Life Certificate for pensioners

Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd June, 2015 for review of status of Aadhaar based authentication of Life Certificate for pensioners.

G.I., Dept. of DPPW., O.M.No.1/19/2014-P&PW(E), dated 10.6.2015

Sub: Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd June, 2015 for review of status of Aadhaar based authentication of Life Certificate for pensioners.

The undersigned is directed to forward the minutes of the meeting held on 3rd June, 2015 under the chairmanship of Secretary (AR&PG and Pension) to review the status of Aadhaar based authentication of Life Certificate for pensioners.

sd/-
(Sujasha Choudhury)
Deputy Secretary

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 3rd JUNE, 2015 ON AADHAAR BASED AUTHENTICATION OF LIFE CERTIFICATE FOR PENSIONERS

A meeting to review the progress on Aadhaar-based verification of Life Certificate was chaired by Secretary (Pension) on 3rd June, 2015 in Committee Room, 5th Floor, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg.

2. List of participants is annexed.

3. Secretary (Pension) complimented the various agencies for their efforts. He informed that during the last video conference of “Pragati” on 27th May, 2015, the Hon’ble Prime Minister, while discussing problems being faced by Defence pensioners had inter alia stressed the need for using Aadhaar based system solutions. He also stated that e-tracking of pension matter would be a good step towards preventing delays.

4. Department of Financial Services (DFS) informed that all banks have started accepting Digital Life Certificates (DLCs). So far 2,06,024 pensioners have submitted DLCs. Of these, 1,47,629 take pension through banks and 35,135 through Defence Pension Disbursement Offices (DPDOs). A total of 1,52,587 DLCs have been successfully processed by the system of which 1,12,286 are through banks and 29,768 through DPDOs. Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) expressed concern over the very high rate of rejection by the system, as the user tended to loose confidence in the process. It was agreed that for every rejection of the DLC, the system shall indicate the reason for rejection in the form of a speaking order. It was also hoped that during November, 2015, up to 50% pensioners ought to avail benefit from Jeevan Pramaan.

(Action: Deit Y/DFS/Banks)

5. Contact numbers of some of the Common Service Centres (CSCs) being circulated were reportedly not correct. DeitY informed that 55,000 records have been cleaned. At present 6,000 CSCs are functional for Jeevan Pramaan. Secretary (DeitY) expressed concern at this. He stated that CSC SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) should be asked to continuously update their databank and ensure that correct contact details are displayed at all points of time. Secretary (Pension) shared the concern.

(Action: DeitY)

6. Secretary, DeitY also stressed that Unique Identification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) should facilitate, promote and encourage wide-spread use of Aadhaar number for delivery of public services. Aadhaar numbers of individual beneficiaries should be made available by UIDAI to Government agencies on demand.

(Action: UIDAI)

7. It was agreed that State Bank of India (SBI) and UIDAI will organise a camp in Manipur as early as possible to facilitate employees/pensioner in getting enrolled for Aadhaar number and registering them under Jeevan Pramaan software.

(Action: UIDAI/SBI)

8. It was agreed that DFS shall immediately, preferably in 2 nd week of June, 2015, call a meeting with % Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and Banks to sort out the following issues at the earliest possible:
(a) Problem with the PPO numbering systems, which are not uniform. It had been agreed that Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) will come up with guidelines to tackle this problem.
(b) For making adequate provisions for self-certification regarding re-marriage, income and reemployment in the software, instructions are to be issued by CPAO/CGA.
(c) Determination of proper procedure and putting in place adequate checks for correlating PPO numbers, bank account number and Aadhaar number while seeding the systems.

Action: DFS/Banks/DeitY/O/o/CGA/CPAO)

9. It was once again pointed out that there were a number of glaring discrepancies in Banks’ data, including the number of pensioners above the age of 100 years and a large number of duplicate records in Banks’ databases. DFS has once again been asked to instruct Banks to get their data cleansed on priority.

(Action: DFS/Banks)

10. UIDAI informed that Ministry of Railways, Indian Army and Indian Air Force have been appointed as Registrars for enrolment for Aadhaar number.

11. Secretary (Pension) informed the meeting of the Prime Minister’s directive to put in place an e-tracking system to monitor delays in pension cases. It was agreed that possibilities of the Online Tracking System for Pension Sanction and Payment (Bhavishya) being adopted by Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence, Department of Posts and Department of Telecommunications would be explored.

(Action: Railways/Defence/Posts /Telecomm unications)

12. Department of Posts informed that Post Offices (POs) disburse pension to 3 lakh pensioners of Departments of Posts and Telecommunications and 2 lakh pensioners of other ministries/departments. The department informed that by so” June, 2015, all POs will start accepting DLCs.

13. NIC informed that the posters and pamphlets for giving wide publicity to ‘Jeevan Pramaan’ are ready for display in bank branches, ATM locations, wellness centres, Railway dispensaries, Defence canteens, etc. Willing agencies can obtain these posters and pamphlets from NIC. For this, name, email id and phone number of the officer concerned were made available: Ms. Nandita Chaudhri, DOG, nandita@nic.in , 24305520.

14. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

Authoirty: www.pensionersportal.gov.in

PRE – RETIREMENT COUNSELLING WORKSHOP – Important message for employees retiring within the next six months



PRE – RETIREMENT COUNSELLING WORKSHOP – Important message for employees retiring within the next six months

Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare

PRE – RETIREMENT COUNSELLING WORKSHOP
Important message for employees retiring within the next six months

The Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare is organizing a Pre-retirement counselling workshop on 29th June, 2015 from 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM in the Lecture Room-II, India International Centre (Annexe) 40, Max Muller Marg, New Delhi-110003.

The employees of Government of India retiring within the next six months and who have not attended the workshop yet are hereby informed that they may attend the workshop. Confirmation with Name, Ministry & Phone No. may be sent at the email addressmkumar.mol@nic.in.

The persons desirous of attending the workshop are also requested to bring their PAN and Aadhar No. A write-up on the Commendable works done by the retiring employee during his entire service is also required to upload the same on ‘ANUBHAV’ on website persmin. nic.in/pension .asp

sd/-
US (Sankalp)
Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare
Phone NO.24641627

Authoirty: www.pensionersportal.gov.in

Search This Blog