CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS - DOPT ORDERS - EXPECTED DA - 7TH PAY COMMISSION NEWS

NPS gets a chunk of SBI staff’s pension corpus The Central government sponsored New Pension Scheme (NPS) is set to receive a major boost with the State Bank of India, moving a significant part of its employees’ pension corpus to the scheme. The NPS will also get significant contributions in coming months by way of employer and employee contribution towards the pension of public sector bank employees who join after April 1, 2010. A senior official at the pension regulator PFRDA said NPS fund managers will henceforth manage a chunk of a fund that helps pay for retirement benefits of all present and former employees of the country’s largest lender. “We received various queries from SBI regarding the nitty-gritties of our scheme,” said Rani Singh Nair, executive director at PFRDA. “We are happy to report that they have now joined us and we hope many others will also be encouraged to follow the example,” she told ET. Industry officials say SBI is moving close to Rs 2,000 crore ou

Centre extends NE LTC schemes Overwhelmed by the response to the innovative LTC scheme for Central Government employees, leading to record growth of tourists’ inflow into the North-East to the tune of 21 per cent in the last couple of years, the Centre has extended the scheme for another two years, official sources on Wednesday confirmed. Over 57.04 lakh government employees travelled to the picturesque North-East till now by and large avoided by tourists because of the looming dangers posed by insurgency. Meghalaya followed by Sikkim and Assam were the most favourite destination, according to the available figures. Officials said that the scheme of relaxation of Leave Travel Concession (LTC) rules allowing the Central Government employees to travel to the different parts of North Eastern region by air has been extended by two years with effect from May 1. The Department of Personal and Training has issued a notice pertaining to the effect on April 20. Minister of State for Per

The quantum of defence production made by Ordnance Factories for last three years is given below:- Year Values of Issues (In Rs. Crores) 2007 - 2008 5757 2008 - 2009 6083 2009 - 2010 8720    Ordnance Factories are being modernised continuously to keep pace with development technology. Army & MHA have recently indicated long term requirements, which are substantially higher than the present production level. As such, OFB has undertaken action to augment the capacity wherever required.    The planned investment for modernisation of Plant & Machinery in Ordnance Factories in 11th & 12th Plan and cumulative expenditure upto January 2010 are furnished as under: Investment Plan for Modernisation Planned expenditure during XI th Plan (in Rs.Crore) Cumulative Expenditure upto January 2010 during XI th Plan (In Rs.Crore) Planned expenditure during XII th Plan (In Rs.Crore) - 1,707.50 970.24 2,100   

F.No. 3 101 1/4/2007-Estt.(A) Government of India Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Personnel and Training New Delhi, dated 23th April, 2010    OFFICE MEMORANDUM    Subject:  CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988 – Relaxation for travel by air to visit NER.                   The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department O.M. of even No. dated 20.4.2010 and to clarify that the validity of this Department O.M. of even NO. dated 2.5.2008 stands extended on the same terms and conditions for a further period of two years beyond 1.5.2010 in relaxation of CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988 to visit North Eastern Region of lndia. (smt.Raj Bala Singh) Under Secretary to the Government of lndia

2.19 Crore Persons are With Disabilities As per Census 2001, there are 2.19 Crore persons with disabilities, out of which 22.63 lakh are persons with mental disability. As per Section 2 (i) of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunity, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, “disability” means (i) blindness, (ii) low vision, (iii) leprosy-cured, (iv) hearing impairment, (v) locomotor disability, (vi) mental retardation (vii) mental illness. As per Section 2 (t) of the Act “person with disability” means a person suffering from not less than forty percent of any disability as certified by a medical authority. National Policy for persons with disabilities envisages measures for early detection and intervention, counseling and medical interventions. Deen Dayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme supports inter alia programmes for early intervention. Assistance is provided to NGOs for projects under the scheme. This information was given by Shri D. Napoleon, the

Restructuring OF Officers’ cadre in Defence Services The Ajay Vikram Singh Committee made recommendations encompassing a wide spectrum of service related issues to address the twin aspects of reducing the high age profile and improving cadre mobility of officers. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, a number of measures have been implemented for the three Services with some variations to meet service specific requirements. These include time based promotion upto the rank of Lt Colonel; introduction of Colonel (Time Scale) rank; upgradation of 750 posts of Lt Colonel to Colonel; upgradation of 1896 posts in the ranks of Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lt General and their equivalents in Navy and Air Force. Government letter has been issued for reducing the minimum qualifying service for substantive promotion to the rank of Colonel and their equivalents in the other two services to 15 years of reckonable commissioned service. The service specific requirements of the N

MBT Arjun The decision on the further order of the MBT Arjun tanks would be based on the results of recently concluded comparative trials of MBT Arjun and T-90 tanks. Certain components of MBT Arjun are imported based on the indigenous design of their configurations. The other systems are indigenously designed and produced. This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Shri S Semmalai and Shri GS Basavaraj in Lok Sabha today.

India becomes 7th largest Shareholder in world bank World Bank’s Shareholding structure Changed Spring meetings of World Bank and IMF The Development Committee of the World Bank, in its meeting held on 25th April, 2010 at Washington DC, took historic decisions relating to increasing the financial capacity of the Bank and enhancing the role of developing countries in its governance. These decisions would be of great benefit to India – both as a borrower from and as a shareholder of the Bank. Changes in the World Bank’s Voting Structure The changes in the shareholding structure of the Bank would make India one of the important shareholders in the Bank. While there is an overall shift of 3% vote share to developing countries bringing their total vote share to 47%, India would now be the 7th largest shareholder in the Bank. In recognition of the global economic changes that are taking place, the voting power of countries like India, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey has in

Government has not restricted promotion opportunities for the Personnel Below Officers Rank (PBOR) in the Armed Forces. The Government has, in fact, improved the career prospects by approving grant of three Assured Career Progression (ACP) to PBOR at 8, 16 and 24 years of service as against three Modified Assured Career Progression Scheme ( MACPs ) for the Central Government Civilian Employees at 10, 20 and 30 years of regular service. At the time of each financial upgradation under ACP, the PBOR would get an additional increment and next higher Grade Pay in hierarchy.               Army :   PBORs (including Jawans) are eligible for grant of commissioning into Officer Cadres through various In Service entries i.e. Army Cadet College (ACC) / Special Commissioned Officers (SCO) / Permanent Commission Officers (Special List) [ PC( SL)].             Navy :   Adequate promotion avenues exist through time based, roster based and selective promotion for sailors. Promotion upto the

INDWF General Secretary Mr.R.Srinivasan has written in his website regarding the new revised pay structure for Industrial Employees of Ordnance Factories. The content of the letter is reproduced below... The proposal submitted by Ministry of Defence on the approval of Fast Track Committee to create 4(Four) grade structure for Industrial Employees has been now approved by Ministry of Finance, (Department of Expenditure) on 22.04.2010. According to the approval the following proposal has been granted. Existing Scheme Revised / Approval Proposal MCM: 25% of 55% of HS Rs.2800/- MCM Placement Grade does not fall in the Hierarchy. MCM 25% of HS I & HS II (55%) 13.75 % - Rs. 4200/- Grade Pay Placement Grade / not regular Hierarchy grade HS 55% Rs.2400/- HS I - 27.5% - Rs.2800/- Grade Pay HS II - 27.5% Rs.2400/- Grade Pay SK 45% - Rs.1900/- SK - 45% - Rs.1900/- Only Three Grades will remain i.e., HS I, HS II & SK (27.5%, 27.5%, 45%) MCM will not be par

Feedback on the 2nd meeting of the National Anomaly Committee held on 27.3.2010 The 2nd meeting of the National Anomaly Committee was held today, i.e. on 27.3.2010 under the chairmanship of Secretary(P), DoP&T(Government of India). At the outset the Chairman expressed that he has an open mind to resolve the anomalies of the VI CPC. The Secretary, Staff Side(NC/JCM), Com. Umraomal Purohit, in his deliberations raised the following points:- (i) The matters of HPCA/PCA, Risk Allowance are to be settled quickly. (ii) The issue of Insurance Scheme should be discussed and in the intervening period, therates of HPCA/PCA should be doubled as has been done in respect of other allowances. (iii) The matter of the MACP Scheme has been agitated minds of the Central Government Employees and the problem needs to be addressed. (iv) He also mentioned that CCA has been merged with Transport Allowance causing number of problems. (v) He suggested that committees can be formed to sort out

2439 CBI Cases Against Public Servants Under PC Act The CBI has registered 2439 cases under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against the public servants including senior officers during the last three years i.e. 2007, 2008, 2009 and the current year (upto March, 2010). The year wise number of cases registered are as follows: Year No. of cases registered 2007 688 2008 744 2009 795 20010( Upto 31.3.2010) 212 Whether a person is guilty or otherwise can only be decided by Court after trial. However, in CBI cases under PC Act, the following number of cases have ended in conviction during last three years and the current year: Year No. of cases ended in conviction 2007 238 2008 216 2009 230 20010( Upto 31.3.2010) 48 Government is fully committed to imp

Permission To CBI For Investigating Senior Officers Seven requests of CBI under Section 6-A of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (DSPE Act) for undertaking investigation enquiry against officers of the level of Joint Secretary and above are pending as on 15.4.2010 with the following Ministries/Departments of the Government of India. Name of the Ministry/Department Number of Requests pending Ministry of Human Resources and Development 1 Department of Atomic Energy 1 Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 1 Ministry of Railways 1 Ministry of Finance(Department of Financial Services 1 Ministry of Coal 1 Total 7 The individual administrataive ministry is required to dispose of such requests in accordance with the provisions of the DSPE Act. This information was

Compulsory Education to Handicapped Children According to Section 26(a) of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Right and full Participation) Act, 1995, every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate environment till he attains the age of eighteen years. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme called “Inclusive Education for the Disabled at the Secondary Stage (IEDSS)” was launched in April, 2009. The objective of the scheme is to enable all students with disabilities, who complete eight years of elementary education, to pursue secondary education (classes IX to XII) in an inclusive and enabling environment. The budget provision for the scheme for 2010-2011 is Rs.70.00 crore. Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which is a flagship programme to universalize elementary education, the policy of zero rejection of children with special needs is followed. These children are educated in the most appropriate environment suitable to their le

Concessions to Women Scientists The Government had constituted a National Task Force for Women in Science. The report of this Task Force was released on 27th January, 2010. The recommendations of the Task Force are under consideration by the Department. The Department of Science and Technology has also constituted a Standing Committee to review the recommendations of the National Task Force and suggest special measures to ensure growth of women scientists in their professional career. Based on the recommendations of the National Task Force for Women in Science, all Aided Institutions of the Department of Science and Technology have been asked to give proposals to establish a state-of-art crèche facility and to build women residential block in institutions having more than 20 women scientists. This was stated by Shri Prithviraj Chavan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences in the Lok Sabha today.

  D.O. N0.A-11013/9/2010-AT   GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL 8 TRAINING MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS NORTH BLOCK. NEW DELHI-110001 Website : hnpliwww.persmin.nic.in   20th April, 2010   Applications are invited from suitable eligible officers for two vacancies of Administrative Members in the Central Administrative Tribunal, one each at the Ahmedabad and Patna Bench.    2. The Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 got amended by the Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 2006. As per sub-sections (2) and (3) of Section 8 of the Act:   "(2) A Member shall hold office as such for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office extendable by one more term of five years:   Provided that no Member shall hold office as such after he has attained the age of sixty-five years.   (3) The conditions of service of Chairman and Members shall be the same as a

Railways hold Landmark Consultantation Workshop with trade and Industry on public private partnership (PPP) policy Initiatives The workshop comes as a sequel to whom it may Concern: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Historical Inititative of pre budget Interaction with Trade and Industry In yet another landmark initiative undertaken by Ministry of Railways to attract private participation in various railway projects, an Interactive Workshop was held here today by the Railways with the representatives of Chambers of Commerce & Industry to obtain their feed back on a number of policy initiatives involving private participation which have recently been formulated. The formulation of the policies by Ministry of Railways comes up following the historical and unprecedented pre-budget interaction with trade and industry representatives held by Minister of Railways Mamata Banerjee on 6th Feb. this year. The historical February interaction saw Railway Minister and the entire Railway Bo

All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural and Rural Labourers on Base 1986-87=100 – March, 2010 The All-India Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers and Rural Labourers (Base: 1986-87=100) for March, 2010 decreased by 2 points each to stand at 536 (Five hundred and thirty six) points for both the series. The rise/fall in index varied from State to State. In case of Agricultural Labourers, it recorded a decrease between 1 to 8 points in 14 States, remained constant in 2 States and an increase between 1 to 4 points in 4 States. Haryana with 608 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 457 points stood at the bottom. In case of Rural Labourers, it recorded a decrease between 1 to 7 points in 13 States, remained constant in 4 States and an increase between 1 to 3 points in 3 States. Haryana with 603 points topped the index table whereas Manipur with the index level of 459 points stood at the bottom.

Mobile Banking Facility 32 banks have been given approval to provide mobile banking facility in the country by the Reserve Bank of India. 21 banks have started providing these services. Mobile banking is a secure application, which takes care of end-to-end encryption of data in transit to offer banking information and transactions. Customer is forced to change the activation code and mPIN sent to him at the time of registration. He is also driven to decide a password to log-in to the application. Customer also has a choice to change the mPIN, log-in password at any point of time. Banks are now permitted to offer this service to their customers subject to a daily cap of Rs.50,000/- per customer for both funds transfer and transactions involving purchase of goods/ services. Transactions up to Rs.1,000/- can be facilitated by banks without end-to-end encryption. The risk aspects involved in such transactions are addressed by the banks through adequate security measures. This infor

   F.No. 31011/4/2007-Estt.(A) Government of India Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training)    New Delhi, dated 20th April, 2010    OFFICE MEMORANDUM    Subject:  CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988 – Relaxation for travel by air to visit NER.                  The undersigned is directed to refer to this Department O.M. of even No.dated 2.5.2008 on the subject mentioned above and to say that the relaxation for travel by air to visit North Eastern Region under CCS (LTC) Rules, 1988 is extended for further two years beyond 1st May. 2010 Smt.Raj Bala Singh Under SecretarY to the Government of India DOPT Order(dated 2 May, 2008) indicates... *Group 'A' and 'B' Officers can travel to NER areas from their nearest posting area... *Group 'C' and 'D' Employees can travel to NER areas only from Guwahati or Kolkata... *Conversion of one block of Home Town LTC into LTC for destinations in NER.   

A.Raja Intervens to resolve the issues with BSNL Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has called off the strike that began this morning after intervention of the Union Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Shri A. Raja. The decision to call off the strike was taken in the interest of the customers and the organization during a meeting between the Minister and the representatives of BSNL associations/unions here today. The Minister directed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) during the meeting to resolve the issue relating to revision of pay scale of non-executives and implementation of promotion policy for them within 15 days. The Department has also agreed to expeditiously move the proposal on revision of IDA pension to the Cabinet completing all the necessary formalities. BSNL has been allowed to procure 10 million mobile lines immediately in view of the fact that 20 million lines are in the process of installation. On the issues of disinvestment of

As part of the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Phase-II and under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), an Integrated Management of Neo-natal and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) strategy is being implemented by States. IMNCI has an inbuilt component of care at home for the newborn where the trained health care provider is expected to visit the newborn on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day after the birth and make an additional 3 visits for the low birth weight baby on the 14th, 21st and the 28th day. Under IMNCI, ANMs and Anganwadi workers are trained to identify danger signs of a sick newborn child, provide management at home and timely referral to the health care facilities. Uttar Pradesh runs a Comprehensive Child Survival Project where the IMNCI training module has been expanded to include birth preparedness and essential care at birth. Some other States like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh Karnataka and Orissa are implementing Home Based Newborn Care (HBNBC) in a few di