SOME IMPORTANT ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED IN THE JCM DEPARTMENTAL COUNCIL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 20.12.2016
Dear
Com., Out of 140 items placed for discussions in the JCM DC meeting,
only 35 items are mentioned below for your view. Besides that, some
important items such as
i)
Request for one time relaxation of the minimum required condition for
promotion from LSG to HSG II and from HSG II to HSG I, in order to
fill up all the posts, consequent on implementation of cadre
restructuring in Postal side.
ii)Request
for issuing clarificatory order for applying revised bench mark "very
good" for MACPs, from the date of issuance of the order, since APAR
may be written earlier with lower bench mark viz. 'good' and it should
not be applied now.
iii)
As the Revised HSG I Rectt.Rules, 2014, all IP line HSG I posts are now
made into General Line, the clarification inadvertently issued in the
order dt. 11.11.2016 on cadre restructuring may be withdrawn and the
posts may be filled, based on the revised rules.
are also , likely to be placed informally, based on the availability of time.
1. Withdrawal of all disciplinary
proceedings against – DDOs and APM Accounts due to excess drawl of
salary to the Postmen on fixation of pay after the Fifth Pay
Commission. Consequent upon the dismissal of SLP filed against the grant
of increments and pay fixation ordered by the principal CAT Delhi filed
by the All India Postal Employees Union Postmen & MTS CHQ, all the
Postmen belonging to that union are being entitled for re fixation of
pay with effect from 1.1.1996.
2.Grant of Incentive for acquiring fresh higher qualification – reg.
In accordance with DOPT OM No. 1/2/89-Estt (Pay-I) dated 09.04.1999,
lump sum grant on acquiring fresh qualifications has been provided. The
main condition is that the acquisition of the qualification should be
directly related to the functions of the Post held by him/her or to the
functions to be performed in the next higher Post and there should be a
direct nexus between the functions of the Post and the qualification
acquired and that it should contribute to the efficiency of the
government servant. It is relevant that the computer and other technical
qualifications acquired by the Postal Assistants will become under the
purview of grant of lump sum incentive. The Computer qualifications
acquired by the system administrators as well as Postal Assistants will
be beneficial to the department in the present trend of technological
induction to a great extent and there is a visible nexus between the
computer qualification and the duties of system administrators as well
as PA/SA Cadre.
3. Non supply of Postage stamps and stationeries to Post offices – reg.
Nowadays the Postage stamps and stationeries are in either scarce or
unavailable. Especially smaller denominations are not being supplied to
Rural Post offices/Branch offices resulting the village customers in
trouble and losing faith on Post offices. It is a fact that the franking
machines are not yet supplied to all Rural Post offices and for
ordinary Postal articles hailing from rural side need, Postage
stamps.The following are the immediate requirements of the rural public
and the Post offices to avoid dissatisfaction/disappointment and
resentment among the rural mass apart from the declining of Postage
revenue and traffic.
4.Drawl of Leave reserve list for Postal Assistants – case of Tamilnadu Circle – reg.
The Leave reserve list is being prepared from the bottom among the
Postal Assistants in roll completed three years of service right from
the year 1993. In the wake of present trend of cancellation of
confirmation examination and delinked status of Posts from confirmation,
the preparation of LR list will be in accordance with the completion of
probation period.In the present recruitment rules, the probation period
is prescribed for two years only. Hence, the preparation of LR may be
drawn on completion two years’ service instead of three years in
practice in some circles likeTamilnadu. It is requested to issue
clarification reiterating the preparation of LR only on the basis of
completion of probation viz. 2 years as mentioned in the extant
recruitment rules for PAs.
5.Issue of Departmental Identity Cards to all staff, including GDS – Reg.
Present days, the necessity of proving Identity is predominantly
increasing in all walks of life. In several departments, the staff are
having their departmental identity cards and using with prestige. The
employees of the Department of Posts scattered throughout the nation
deserve to have departmental ID to use it on travel, visit, tours and on
off campus duties etc. It is requested to cause action to provide a
departmental Identity card with photo to all the staff of the department
which is very purposeful.
6.Filling up of Senior Postmaster vacancies with Postmaster Grade III – reg.
By invoking the extant Postmaster cadre recruitment rules, the
Postmaster Grades I, II & III have been created by initial
constitution and subsequently the vacant posts have been filled up by
promotion as envisaged in the above RRs. But the Senior Postmaster cadre
as prescribed in the above RR is neither created under the initial
constitutionnor filled up by promotion. The denial of Promotion to
Postmaster Grade III officials having two year of service in that Grade
including HSG I service causes concern. If the initial constitution of
Senior Postmaster Grade is pending due to any court case, etc., it will
in no way encumber the probability of filling all the posts under
officiating arrangements from the existing Postmaster Grade III
officials’in consonance with the extant Postmaster Cadre Recruitment
rules.It is requested to fill up the promotional quota on a regular
basis and the remaining posts any may kindly be allowed for Postmaster
Grade III officials under officiating arrangements.
7.Mismatch of PA Vacancies resulting acute shortage of Postal Assistants on Postal division
Ref: - Minutes of the JCM (DC) held on 16.12.2014 S/No. 31 – item No. 26.
There is acute shortage of Postal Assistants despite of annual
recruitments. Logically there would not be a huge difference other than
the vacancies in the intervening period arisen out of death, Voluntary
Retirement disciplinary actions Rule 38 etc. on completion of every
recruitment process. But in reality in many divisions especially in
Tamilnadu UP, Karnataka circles in the ADR plan, the actual vacancies
are not reflected and resultantly there is a permanent arithmetic
difference between the sanctioned strength and the working strength. The
following are some of the reasons of such shortage that need to be
reconciled.
1. In the
sanctioned strength the Leave Reserve component of 10% might not have
been taken into account for recruitment process by Divisional heads.
2. The
sanctioned staff strength might not have been correctly assessed added
by 10% for LR purpose to assess the correct sanctioned strength.
3. The
chain of vacancies right from HSG-I to LSG, PM Grade III to PM Grade I,
Departmental Quota of IP vacancies etc. are to be added in the PA
vacancies while preparing ADR plan and DPC.
4. There may be omission of carrying forward the unfilled vacancies of the previous recruitments/DPCs.
It was replied in the minutes of the JCM that Instructions would be
reiterated regarding method of calculating vacancies and the same is yet
to materialize. One time exercise shall be executed to arrive the exact
vacancies by working out the difference between the sanctioned strength
and the working strength which includes the officiating posts etc.
It is requested to cause instructions to all recruiting units to wipe out the differences between the sanctioned strength and working strength at the earliest.
8. Irregular interpretation and non accounting MACP to the adhoc HSG I officials in some circle. In
some circles, the third financial upgradation under MACP has not been
granted with Rs. 4600/- Grade pay to the HSG II officials who have been
officiating on adhoc basis in HSG I cadre.
The Rule 26 of MACP stipulates as inter alia: -
“Cases of persons holding higher posts purely on adhoc basis shall also
be considered by the screening Committee along with others. They may be
allowed the benefit of financial upgradation on reversion to the lower
post or if it is beneficial vis-à-vis the pay drawn on adhoc basis”.
From the above, it is evident that due benefit and adhoc fixation
whichever is beneficial, that should be extended to on acquiring the
MACP. For an example in one case of Sri. K. A. Gandhi, Retd. SPM Mahuva
MDG in Bhavnagar division, Gujarat Circle, the Department has intimated
to him that he was working in HSG I on adhoc basis from 24.02.2007 and
retired on superannuation without terminating the adhoc arrangement, he
was not entitled for the third Financial upgradation w.e.f. 01.09.2008.
Whereas, his pensionary benefits & others have been taken into
account as per his lien post and not as per the adhoc arrangements. As
such, the official has put into great financial loss. The intention of
Rule 26 is not to deny the benefits due to adhoc arrangements in higher
cadre.
It is therefore requested cause suitable clarification in this regard to
all the circles not to deny the dues by misinterpreting the rulings on
this subject.
9.Repatriation of PAs deputed to Circle Regional offices from divisions for PLI/RPLI work – reg. The
regional/circle offices are keeping excess staff drafted from Post
offices and resultantly, the operative offices are suffering with more
shortage. In many circles PAs/SAs from various divisions have been under
deputation to Regional offices for not only manning the vacant posts
there, but also for RPLI/RPLI work.
But to our surprise now a days, the work of PLI/RPLI has been
decentralized and transferred to divisions but not the man power
exclusively taken for such work from divisions. All the operative
offices are suffering due to shortage of PAs as their divisional
strength is diminished by disproportionate deputation to Regional
offices Circle offices. The staff sanctioned for the PLI work shall also
be diverted to the Post offices due to decentralization. All the PAs
taken for PLI/RPLI work shall be returned to the divisions and also the
Pas drafted to CO and RO shall also be returned back.
10. Pooling of PLI/RPLI work at Head Post
offices due to Amendment of PLI rules 2011 – Requirement of additional
work force – Reg.
Amending Postal Life Insurance rules 2011, all the PLI/RPLI work are
entrusted to the Head Post offices. Now all the HPOs are classified as
Central Processing centers for PLI/RPLI and the majority work of (1)
acceptance of new proposals (2) settlement of maturity (3) settlement of
survival benefits (4) Settlement of death claims are put under the
shoulders of Postmaster. By this amendment, the work pertaining to
PLI/RPLI are transferred to Central processing centers. Thus, in the
changed scenario, all the HOs are needed for more manpower to handle the
cases of PLI/RPLI now grown large in its magnitude, quantum and volume.
Considering the above newly transferred duties and works to all Head
Post offices, it is quite natural they require additional work force to
discharge their functions in normal course. Hence it is requested to
provide manpower exclusively for RPLI/PLI work to all HPOs.
11.Enhancement of special casual leave for union meetings.
At present, 20 days have been allowed for the grant of special casual
leave to the officials for attending union meetings, circle conference,
seminars etc. This is insufficient. Further in some circles, the days in
which the union secretaries attending the Monthly Meetings/Bi-monthly
Meetings are also construed as special casual leave instead of duty
period as the formal meetings with administration will not cover up with
other union meetings.It is therefore requested to clarify the same and
also to enhance the number of special casual leave to attend union
Meetings/Seminars.
12.Representation of department in the cases filed in Consumer Forum and other courts
It has been observed that the cases filed on the consumer forums and
other courts against our department are not pleaded properly before
court by engaging a lawyer on our behalf. The Government pleader is not
appraised properly regarding intricacies of departmental rules,
procedures and legal responsibility of postal department. It is fact
that most of the cases are attended by the PRI (P)s, Postal Assistants
or Mail Overseers, who are not trained. These court verdicts are always
going against our department and our innocent staff become the victims.
The staff side therefore, demands that the lawyers appointed by the
department should be adequately briefed to represent the cases by our
officers not below the rank of ASP and they should personally attend the
court cases.
13.Request for discontinuance the practice of obtaining fidelity / security bond from the employees handling cash
The 5th CPC in its report vide para 62-13 recommended to discontinue the
practice of obtaining fidelity / security bond from employees. In the
present stage of handling huge cash, obtaining fidelity bond for Rs.
3000/- to Rs. 5000/- does not serve any purpose. A lot of manpower is
wasted in Accounts branch in maintaining these records. Similar is the
position of inspecting offices also. Only in rare and exception cases,
the guarantee amt is received. The employees are unnecessarily crediting
premium every year to the loopholes to obtain fidelity bond.It is
requested to consider and discontinue the practice of security bonds
which has no longer serving any purpose.
14.Delinking the quarters of C&B class offices where standard accommodation was not provided: In
C& B class offices one or two rooms were provided in rental
buildings as quarters and the HRA foregone by the officials is more than
the House rent paid to the building. After computerization there is no
space for keeping the UPS and batteries and computer installations and
the quarter portion is used for the office as the SPM is not in a
position to reside in it. It is requested either to provide standard
accommodation or delinking the quarters wherever it is feasible as per
the security point.
15.Posting of in charge of BPC – regarding
In accordance with the Directorate letter No. 16-10/2000 BD dt.
19.10.2010, the in charge of the BPC should be posted among the BCR
officials for the transactions above one to 10 lakhs.Since the cadre of
BCR is not in existence, the post required to be manned by HSG II
officials or above. In many places, the PO
& RMS Accountants have been ordered to look after the supervisory
work in accounts instead of Postmasters or ASPOs. This is highly
irregular.It is therefore requested to create or upgrade the
posts of in charge of BPC to the level of HSG II and HSG I at the
earliest based on the functional requirements.
16.Non-Drawal of HRA to the officiating SPMs working at offices having attached quarters.
Even though the power of de-quarterization of a post attached Quarters
is now delegated to Heads of Circle vide Directorate letter no.
10-4/2003 - Bldg. dt. 6.5.03, the Circle heads are not according proper
sanction for dequarterisation/suspension of Quarters for the periods of
such officiating periods exceeding 90 days. The officiating officials
should not suffer a financial loss due to the administrative problem of
non-posting of a regular incumbent to the vacant post within the
stipulated period. Prolonged officiating arrangement is an ultimate loss
to an officiating official for no fault on his side.
It is therefore requested to issue clarity instructions to all Circle heads to settle the pending issues accordingly.
17.Grant of OTA/Excess Duty Allowance to the SPMs working in single/Double handed Post offices. To
compensate the excess work prevailing in the single and double handed
post offices, the SPMS shall be compensated with the following.i) In
the absence of PA, the SPMs working in ‘B’ class offices may be granted
minimum of 3 hours OTA to look after the duty of PA.(ii) Similarly,
in ‘C’ class offices, where the work load exceeds 8 hours and more,
compensation in the shape of Excess Duty Allowance may please be
considered.
18.Stepping up of pay in case of postman and Group ‘D’ officials – regarding.
The condition of seniority in the gradation list to be observed for the
stepping of pay has been misinterpreted in case of Karnataka Circle and
the postman and Group 'D's are not permitted to claim stepping of pay at
par with juniors in the Divisional gradation list. The stepping up has
been denied by stating that the seniority should be determined within
the sub division where the official is working. This defeats the purpose
of maintaining the gradation list at Divisional level in such cadres.
Since the recruitment of postman and Group 'D' is being made at
Divisional level and the seniority is also being determined based on the
selection list of the entire division, the denial of stepping up of the
pay is tantamount to the denial of dues to such officials.
19.Providing norms for BD, Technology, RTI oriented works and Project Arrow works
No establishment norms as per SIU standard for works relating to BD,
Technology, Project Arrow and RTI oriented works has been formulated so
far our knowledge goes. It is evident that huge work hours for disposal
of those items of works have already been created in CO/ROs but no man
power to deal with the cases has been provided due to non framing of
norms to adjudge the quantum of such work.
20.Non refund of the amount recovered under
the New Pension Scheme& Non settlement of dues to the
deceased/retired employees under NPS/ Consequent upon the
clarification of the Government of India that in case of new recruits
appointed after 01.01.2004 but remained in training prior to 01.01.2004
shall be covered under the old pension scheme, more than 10000 Postal
Assistants were brought under the old pension scheme. However, the
recoveries made from them towards the new pension scheme have not been
refunded yet despite many representations.Serious action is requested to
refund the amount early. (ii) Similarly in the event of
resignation/retirement, the pension fund has not yet been refunded
besides payment of pension. Many officials joined after 2004 and many
GDS promoted after 2004 to Postmen could not get any benefits so far
under this NPS.
21.Ambiguity in the orders granting conveyance allowance to Systems administrators.
In the recent orders issued to prescribe the conveyance allowance to
system administrators, the view point of the staff side that they should
be granted only road mileage allowance has not been reflected.
Resultantly in many circles, the practice of reimbursement of actual
expenses incurred for attending immediate faults to the systems
administrators have been stopped and they are now incurring expenditure
from their own. This causes a concern. The purpose of taking the subject
has been totally defeated due to this order. Either they should be
brought under the purview of road mileage allowance or the actual
expenses incurred by them for their journey should be reimbursed.
22.Replacement of outdated Computer, Printers, UPS & providing AMCS to Computer Peripheral – case of Tamilnadu Circle.
While the Tamilnadu Circle Union has taken up the subject with the Chief
Postmaster General in the Four Monthly Meeting held on 24.07.2013, for
replacement of worn out and condemned computers, UPS and printers and
placing AMC etc, the Chief PMG replied that “for
replacement of hardware, the matter has already been taken up with the
Directorate asking for funds once funds received, this will be done”.When
we are the venturing and advancing with full modernization in the
Department of Posts, the non-replacement of worn out and condemned
computer peripheral is causing a concern. The officials should not be
troubled to perform their work in such condemned computers which will
result in declining the efficiency in service in the Post offices. Some
serious attention is required in this regard.It is therefore requested
to kindly expedite and cause appropriate action by extending top
priority in replacing the condemned and old computer peripheral in all
the Circles.
23. Problems arising out in Core Insurance solution/Mc Camish migration – solutions requested
24. Problems arisen due to implementation of Core banking solution.
25. Request to implement the ORDER OF SUPREME COURT ON CIVIL APPEAL NO 2010 OF 2009 RELATING TO ENTITLED MONETARY BENEFITS EFFECTIVE FROM 01.01.1996 TO 10.10.1997.
26.Delegation of Powers of Limited Transfers of GDS Staff to PMG.
27.Revision of Eligibility for MTS to (PA-SA) LGO Examination - Reduce 5 years to 2 years.
28. Amendment to the PA Recruitment Rules — requested.
In the revised PA. rectt. rules, vide Gazette notification dt.21.5.2015,
in column 7 for educational qualification, it has been mentioned that
“as per the notification issued by the SSC from time to time for HSC
Level (10+2) examination”.As per the notification issued by the
Department on revised procedure for filling up of posts of P.A./S.A. dt.
8.5.2012, in the column for educational and other qualifications, it is
mentioned that , “should have studies the local language of the State or Union territory of the concerned Postal Circle or Hindi as a subject atleast in Matriculation or equivalent
As per the SSC notification, for rectt. to PA, or S.A for 2015, the
educational qualification is notified as candidates should have possess
HSG or 12th Class from any recognised school or university”.Because of
mentioning in the last recruitment notification as “should have studies the local language of the State or Union territory of the concerned Postal Circle or Hindi as a subject atleast in Matriculation or equivalent ‘,
large no. of candidates are entered from various Postal Circles,
without knowing the local language or even English.They could not able
to cope up with the local people across the counters in SOs or even in
H.0.s and the rest of the staff have to manage their work in addition.
Nearly 50% of them applied for transfer immediately and rest of them are
prepared to quit the job, because of language problem. This will defeat
the very purpose of annual DR and the existing staff are already
suffering due to acute shortage.This will be repeated by this year
recruitment also, because there is no restriction or condition that the
candidates should have possess the knowledge of local language Under
these circumstances, it is requested to review the situation based on
the facts prevailing in the circles after the 2012 recruitment and make
necessary amendments in the PA/SA Recruitment Rules to sort out this
problem.
29. Provision of five days week .
The Postal operative staff are in great pressure and heavy strain in the
work after the implementation of ongoing CBS, CIS etc. Two days rest in
a week will motivate them better work performance. Already, five day
weak is in vogue in respect of Postal administrative offices and Postal
accounts. Only the operative offices are kept open for six days in a
week. Recently, the bank employees have been observed five day weeks in
the second and fourth week of the month. This is being introduced in the
insurance public sector companies like LIC. It is therefore requested
to kindly consider to observe five days week in the Postal operative
officers.
30.Request for scheming the modalities of shifting PO buildings within the time frame.
31.Request for not abolishing the GDSV/SV
post despite there has been decline in sale of stamps on the basis of
the latest statistics.
32.Request for sanctioning the 1/4th of
full daily allowance, as special allowance, to those who are
compulsorily to take up the boarding and lodging at the training
institutes.
33. Request for exempting the posting of Treasurer from the purview of Transfer and placement committee.
34. Request for ensuring uniformity in
fixing of TRCA by the Divisional Heads to GDSBPMs who are merged with
functions/duties over and above the BPM work.
35.Request for evolving and deploying an
alternate tech- driven modality in a bid to mitigate the long drawn
process involved in issuance of promotion/posting to LSG/HSG II/ HSG I
in CO / RO level to a less cumbersome, trust worthy and transparent
fair mechanism of the single window system in place and enabling the
eligible official to decide their consent or otherwise to decide the
offer of promotion duly knowing availability of the places of their
choice.
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