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Showing posts from August, 2009

Government to release pay commission arrears

The government has decided to pay the second instalment of the Sixth Pay Commission arrears. "As in the case of the first instalment of the arrears, government servants would be permitted to deposit their arrears in their GPF (general provident fund) accounts," an internal finance ministry memorandum said. The first instalment of 40 percent was paid last fiscal. The finance ministry has not given any deadline for the payment of the second tranche, but sources said it would probably be paid around Diwali. According to official estimates, the arrears will cost the government Rs.29,373 crore. There are about 3.8 million central government pensioners (excluding armed forces) as estimated by the All India Central Government Pensioners Association (AICGPA). The revised pension scheme was implemented with retrospective effect from Jan 1, 2006.

Govt to review IIT faculty pay

With faculty from across the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) calling off lectures and threatening dire consequences like mass resignation, the Centre has sat up and promised to revisit the pay structure it formulated for IIT teachers. On Friday, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said his officials would take a look at the salary offered to faculty and rework the pay structure if need be. Sibal said the problem was that though at the entry level, IIT teachers get more salary, selection for the next promotion, unlike the UGC system where it is automatic, results in disparity. “We will look into it,” he said. On their part, IIT professors continued their protest. At IITMadras, faculty stayed away from classes on Friday and IIT-Bombay teachers refused to conduct lectures on Monday. The Union government recently announced pay scales for faculty at centrally-funded technical institutes but declared a salary structure lower than what was recommended by the Govardhan Mehta Committee, s

ORDNANCE MCM WILL GET RS.4200 GRADE PAY AT PAR WITH RAILWAYS MCM

The problem which started with 5 th CPC has been settled with the emergence of 6 th CPC. Ordnance-MCM who had been availing payment equivalent to Railway-MCM till 4 th CPC, after the establishment of 5 th CPC ceased to receive so. After 5 th CPC, Ordnance-MCM received pay range as Rs.4500-7000 , whereas Railways received pay range of Rs.5000-8000. The demand which started at that time has been rendered to action by the government at last. A Fast Track Committee was put into formation to solve the problem that arose for Railways MCM. Ordnance and Postal departments too joined the committee. The committee disscussed various issues at various time period. A condition was put forth that for the implementation of Rs.5000-8000 to Ordnance-MCM they have to accept the proposal of dividing Highly Skilled Grade into two segments. Having accepted the proposal the Ordnance MCM was granted their plea by the Government. As a goodwill of this, 50 percent of the Highly Skilled Grade (Rs.24

Railways to pay 75 days Productivity-linked bonus

Railways to pay 75 days Productivity-linked bonus The Railways have decided to pay its employees 75 days productivity-linked bonus for this year, according to railway ministry sources. The bonus has been cleared by Railway minister Mamata Banerjee, the sources told newspersons in Kolkata today. The Railways had paid 73 days productivity-linked bonus last year.

Big tax cut coming your way

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled a roadmap for reforms in direct taxes that promises to drastically cut the tax liability of most individuals by considerably raising tax slabs. The new direct taxes code, proposed to be implemented from April 2011, aims to moderate effective tax rates in the hope that this will encourage more people to pay up. Proposed Income Tax Rates for Individuals Up to Rs.1,60,000 Nil From Rs.1,61,000 to Rs.10,00,000 10 Per cent (Income exceeds Rs.1,60,000) From Rs.10,01,000 to 25,00,000 20 Per cent (Rs.84,000 + Income exceeds Rs.10,00,000) Above Rs.25,00,000 30 Per cent (Rs.3,84,000 + Income exceeds Rs.25,00,000) Proposed Income Tax Rates for Women-b

Govt. considering raising retirement age to 62

The government is actively considering raising the retirement age of all central government employees, including those in the armed forces, from the present 60 to 62 years. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has submitted a report to the prime minister outlining all the pros and cons of the move, including the “cascading effects” on government employment and the huge savings, at least for two years, on account of retirement payouts. If the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and the prime minister find the arguments forwarded by the finance ministry credible and convincing, the announcement may come as early as August 15, as part of Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech. The Cabinet may discuss the matter tomorrow. Although the finance ministry is making a strong case for the move, the DoPT is taking time to make up its mind, possibly out of consideration for the 1979 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and other central services. Officers of the 1979 bat

Govt can terminate temporary staff without assigning reason: CAT

The central government can terminate the services of its temporary employee without assigning any reason, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) said. The tribunal passed the order on a petition filed by an ex-technician Avinash challenging his termination by the Safdarjung Hospital after his services were not found satisfactory during the probation period. "Offer of appointment specifically provide that the services of an applicant can be terminated at any time without assigning any reason. There is no mandatory provision to assign any reason thereof," the CAT, comprising members Dharam Paul Sharma and N D Dayal, said. Rejecting the contentions of Avinash, the Tribunal said it is a case of "termination simpliciter in legitimate exercise of power under the Central Civil Services (Temporary Services) rules." Avinash cited a number of cases which had been decided on similar lines in the apex court and said his termination was an example of violation of &

Staff Corner discussion forum is back.

Our discussion forum is back. We had been receiving lot of requests to enable the discussion board and lot of queries on why we have closed the board. Well, we have not closed the forum, we have been clearing the irrelevant posts from the board.  Those who had visited recently must have seen that the board was full of spam. We are trying to clean all of them. We have also taken stricter measures to fight spam. From now, the registrations will be manually approved by the moderator. Also the initial postings by a members will have to be manually approved by the administrator. This may take some time for your postings to get displayed for others. We regret any inconvenience caused due to this measures, but this is required to keep the board clean and useful. We request you to use this forum to discuss all your issues, make announcements, clarify the queries raised by other members etc. Visit @ http://staffcorner.com/talk/

Admissibllity / entitlement for traveling by Shatabadl Express

An office memorandum has been issued by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance regarding admissibllity / entitlement for traveling by Shatabadl Express. The OM clarifies that for the purpose of journeys on tour, officers drawing Grade Pay of Rs.7600 and above are entitled to travel by Executive Class in Shatabadi trains and AC First Class In Rajdhani trains.

Strike ends, banks to resume work from today

The two-day strike by the bank employees ended on Friday with the Indian Bank Association (IBA) reportedly agreeing to the demand of the agitating bank employees for 17.5% hike in their salaries. Convener of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) AK Srivastava said that since the IBA has agreed to the demand of the bank employees they would resume work from Saturday. He informed that the agreement was reached at a meeting held between the UFBU and IBA in New Delhi. Bank officials said they would ensure that customers get the best of the services. But since banks function for half-day only on Saturday, customers may have some problems when banks resume work. Officials said they had no intention to hit the customers but then it was the decision of the IBA to roll back the earlier agreed hike of 17.5% which forced them to go on a two-day strike. But, the issue has now been resolved, they added. Bank sources said that transactions to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore w

Revision of pay scales of Faculty and Scientific/Design Staff as per 6th CPC

Revision of pay scales of Faculty and Scientific/Design Staff and other academic staff of Centrally funded technical institutions following pay revision of the Central Government employees on the recommendation of the sixth Pay Commission. The Union Cabinet today approved the revision of pay scales of Faculty, Design & Scientific Staff and other academic staff of the Centrally funded institutions. The Cabinet also approved giving financial assistance to States for implementing the above revised scales. This will enable the Institutes to recruit and retain talented and well qualified faculty and to provide them an environment and working conditions that encourage them to enhance their performance and capacity

Employee to be heard in case of adverse ACR: CAT

The government has to give an opportunity to its employee to present his case if there is an adverse remark in the Annual Confidential Report(ACR) which could hamper his promotion, the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT)has said. The tribunal passed the order on a petition of a senior scientist, J P Sharma, working with Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR),alleging that he was deprived of promotion on the basis of an adverse ACR without giving him an opportunity to challenge the report. The government contended that overall grading in his ACR for last two years was 'average' but denied him the right to representation on the ground that it was 'not adverse'per se. But, the tribunal did not agree with the government's view and said the employee has the right to be heard in all cases where his prospect of promotion gets adversely affected due to the 'average' grading as he would get promoted only after getting 'very good' grading.

LIC staff to go on 2-hour strike on Aug 4 to protest LIC Bill

The LIC employees will observe a nationwide two-hour walk out strike on August 4, 2009 in protest against the introduction of LIC (Amendment) Bill 2009 in the Lok Sabha. The strike call was given by All India Insurance Emoloyees' Association (AIIEA). The Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha was a step further in implementing the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee which recommended opening up of insurance sector to private capital, General Secretary of the association K Venu Gopal said in a statement here today. The move is to meet the demands of the foreign capital to further liberalise the insurance sector and the bill is detrimental to the interests of the policyholders and the national economy, he said.

No data on Muslim employees in Central govt jobs: Khurshid

The government today said it does not maintain statistics of Muslim employees in Central government services but it has data for the five minority communities as a whole. In reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (Independent charge) of the ministry of Minority Affairs, Salman Khurshid said, "government does not maintain statistics of employment of Muslims in the Central government services". Khurshid said the data is not collected minority community wise or service wise by the DOPT but for the five minority communities as a whole. Giving these statistics, the minister said that while 12,182 minorities were recruited in ministries and departments in 2006-07, this figure stood at 12,195 in 2007-08 and 4,479 in the year 2008-09. He however, said the guidelines issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) on January 8, 2007, include instructions for monitoring the progress in recruitment of minorities in all ministries, departments, pu