Retirement in the month of January 2016

Following JTS Gr. A and PS Gr. B Officers are retiring from Govt. Service on superannuation on 31/1/2016

Sl. No.	Name of Officer	Designation	Circle
1	Shri A. Kuppsamy	Chief PM, Chennai GPO, Chennai	Tamil Nadu
2	Shr M. Bakthavatsalam	SSP, Virudunagar Division	Tanil Nadu
3	Shri Chhotey Lal	Supdt., PSF, Aligarh	Uttar Pradesh
4	Shri Jagannath Baith	SSP, Gaya division, Gaya	Bihar
5	Shri Suresh Chandra		Odisha
6	Shri Hanuman Visen	SP, Bahraich division	Utta Pradesh
7	Shri Interjit Singh	AD (Inv/Estt) o/o CPMG, Chandigarh	Punjab
8	Arjun Jha	AD (Legal) o/o CPMG, Patna	Bihar
9	Shri V. G. Vaghela	ASP (HQ) Bhavnagar Division	Gujarat
10	Shri V.Chandrasekaran	SP, Dharamapuri Division	Tamil Nadu
11	Shri Pramod Kumar Srivastava	SRM, Muzaffar Division, Muzaffar	Bihar
12	Shri Balram Mandal	SP, CSD, Patna	Bihar
13	Smt. Pushkala	ASP (HQ) Alappuzha Div (Vol. Retirement on 1/2/2016)	Kerala
14	Shri V. P. Phirke	SP, Buldhana Division, Buldhana	Maharashtra

CHQ wishes them a very happy, healthy and long retired life. In few circles, senior ASPs are working on adhoc basis in PS Gr. B cadre and retiring without getting regular PS Gr. B promotion, their names are not included in the list, the same may kindly be reported to GS by SMS.

Government announces first batch of 20 smart cities

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Urban Development

28-January-2016 17:58 IST

Government announces first batch of 20 smart cities from 11 States and Delhi 
23 States/UTs left out to participate in fast track competition 

Selection through competition totally objective and transparent, says Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu

20 cities propose an investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years; All cities to resort to PPP

26,735 acres area in 20 cities identified for making them smart

            The Government today announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during this financial year. Announcing the cities here today, Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the winners were from 11 States and the Union Territory of Delhi and the selection was totally objective and transparent based on standardized processes.

            Shri Naidu further said that Smart City Mission marks a paradigm shift towards urban development in the country since it is based on ‘bottom up’ approach with the involvement of citizens in formulation of city vision and smart city plans and the Urban Local Bodies and State Governments piloting the mission with little say for the Ministry of Urban Development. He also observed that it was for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in urban sector are being made based on competition based selection of cities.

            Informing that 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of 97 cities and towns in the first round of competition, Shri Naidu said that this enthusiastic participation of people is a major positive outcome. 

            3 cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five made it to the winning list.

            The Minister informed that 23 States and UTs who could not make to the list of winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’. Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion in the mission.

            Shri Naidu informed that the 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years with all the cities proposing Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization. 10 of the 20 cities have proposed to mobilise Rs.8,521 cr under PPP model while others have also indicated this option. A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions.

            Elaborating on the advantages of Smart City Mission, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said that this leads to integrated urban planning by addressing the issue of infrastructure, land use planning, transport, urban design and architecture in a holistic manner unlike in the past. Stating that building a smart city is not a destination but a series of small steps in that direction, Shri Naidu said that the country has taken one such step today. 

            The Minister said that urban local bodies are taking a quantum jump to improve their capabilities and have resorted to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of each city for coming out with city vision. 

            The 20 smart cities announced by Shri Venkaiah Naidu were :

           

Rank	City	State
1	Bhubaneswar	Odisha
2	Pune	Maharashtra
3	Jaipur	Rajasthan
4.	Surat	Gujarat
5	Kochi	Kerala
6	Ahmedabad	Gujarat
7	Jabalpur	Madhya Pradesh
8	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh
9	Solapur	Maharashtra
10	Davanagere	Karnataka
11	Indore	Madhya Pradesh
12	New Delhi Municipal Council	Delhi
13	Combattore	Tamil Nadu
14	Kakinada	Andhra Pradesh
15	Belagavi	Karnataka
16	Udaipur	Rajasthan
17	Guwahati	Assam
18	Chennai	Tamil Nadu
19	Ludhiana	Punjab
20	Bhopal	Madya Pradesh

            Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, 5 have  population below 5 lakhs each, 4 in the range of 5-10 lakhs, 6 in between 10-25 lakhs, 4 between 25 and 50 lakhs and only Ahmedabad has above 50 lakhs.

Lok Sabha Questions & Answers

1. Postal Employees LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 2773 ANSWERED

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2. Revenue and Market Share of India Post LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 2965 ANSWERED

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3. Streamlining Postal System LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 4022 ANSWERED ON: 23.12.2015


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Digital India Initiative Would Further Enable India Post to take E-Commerce to Every Indian

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology

28-January-2016 16:15 IST

Digital India Initiative Would Further Enable India Post to take E-Commerce to Every Indian

India Post Well Set to Bridge Rural-Urban Divide

Union Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said today that NDA Government’s initiative to digitalize functioning would help in making e-commerce reach every corner. He said the initiative would further enhance India posts reach as national carrier. The Minister also highlighted that the Government’s ‘Digital India Project’ was working to bring the internet and broadband to the remotest corners of the country giving further boost to the growing e-commerce market. Department of Posts, with its largest postal network in the world is the biggest potential partner to the e-commerce companies being the only last mile logistics handler across the country.

Speaking at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Communications& IT, on the e-Commerce initiatives of the Department of Posts, he said that various steps taken by the Department of Posts for gearing up its capabilities for handling e-Commerce parcel business as well as introducing services such as Cash on Delivery which have completely revolutionized the e-commerce business in India. The Department had handled COD value worth Rs. 500 crores up to March 2015 which has now crossed Rs. 1000 crores till December 2015 and is expected to reach around Rs. 1500 crores by the end of the current financial year. 

The Minister shared with the Committee that one of his prime agenda was to bring about a change in the post office operations so that it can play a larger role in providing accessibility of products and services to the door step of each and every individual across the country. With the IT Modernization Project in an advanced stage of implementation, Department of Posts is well set to redefine its operations to tap the e-commerce industry. This is not only going to further augment its revenue but it will also play a larger role in connecting India more comprehensively by reaching out to the door step of the consumers across the country, thereby bridging the Digital and urban rural divide in terms of availability of products. 

The Department had set up 48new Parcel Processing Centers so far and 9 more such centers are coming up during the current financial year. These efforts in the last eighteen months have resulted in an overall revenue growth in the parcel segment by 45% during 2014-15 and more than 100% in the current financial year. Similarly, Speed Post, the flagship product of the Department also has premium parcel component which has registered a growth of 12.5% in the current financial year as against 8.9% last year giving overall revenue of more than Rs 1100 crores to the Department in the current year so far. Business from major e-commerce companies are growing. Amazon India booking has increased from average 50,000 articles per month last year to 3 lakhs articles per month in the current year and so is the case of other players like Flipkart, Myntra etc. where the bookings have increased from 15,000 per month to 30,000-50,000 per month. 

The members of the Consultative Committee appreciated the steps taken by the Department of Posts and complimented on its efforts to bring rural India into the e-commerce mainstream as well as enhancing its revenues through parcel and Speed Post business. 

The meeting was attended by the Hon’ble Members of Parliament, Sh Nepal Singh, Sh Raj Babbar, Sh Bhola Singh, Sh Arvind Ganpat Sawant, Smt Ranjanben Bhatt and Sh K Gopal The Hon’ble Members suggested that the Post Offices should not only enhance their visibility but should also become the rural centers for providing computer and internet facilities to the youth. Similarly, the Post Shoppes’ opened by the Department should be expanded and they should also retail telecom SIM and top-up cards.

New checks on booking of e-ticket/i-ticket through IRCTC

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Railways

28-January-2016 16:34 IST

Railway Ministry introduces new checks on booking of e-ticket/i-ticket through IRCTC website with a view to further prevent possible misuse Under the new provisions a maximum of 6 tickets can be booked online by an individual user in a month on IRCTC website This new provision will come into effect w.e.f. 15th February, 2015. The move aims to deter touts and to facilitate genuine users  

In order to facilitate genuine users and prevent touting activities, various checks have already been put in place for the booking of e-ticket/i-ticket on IRCTC website including the following : - 

1.      Individuals are allowed only 2 tickets per user-ID in a day (for ARP booking) from 08:00 hours to 10.00 hours.

2.      Individuals are allowed only 2 tickets per user-ID in a day (for Tatkal booking) from 10:00 hours to 12:00 hours.

3.      A maximum of 10 tickets can be booked online in a month by an individual.

4.      Quick Book Option is disabled from 08:00 to 12:00 hours

5.      All types of ticketing agents (YTSK, RTSA, IRCTC agents etc.) have been debarred from booking tickets during the first thirty minutes of opening of booking i.e. from 08:00 to 08:30 hours for general bookings, and from 10:00 to 10:30 hours and 11:00 to 11:30 hours for Tatkal booking in AC and non-AC classes respectively.

6.      Booking is not allowed through e-wallet and cash cards from 08:00 to 12:00 hours.

7.      There is only one booking in one user login session except for return/onward journey between 08:00 to 12:00 hours.  

To further prevent any possible misuse, Ministry of Railways has now decided that effective from 15th February, 2016, a maximum of 6 tickets can be booked online by an individual user in a month on IRCTC website. This will replace the existing system under which a maximum of 10 tickets can be booked online through IRCTC website in a month by an individual. However, the existing condition will continue wherein these booking will be subject to a limit of booking 2 opening Tatkal tickets in 10:00- 12:00 hours period in a day and 2 opening Advance Reservation Period (ARP) tickets in 08:00-10:00 hours period in a day. 

This has been done keeping in view the analysis of usage of quota of 10 tickets which indicated that 90% of users are booking upto 6 tickets in a given month and only 10% are making more than 6 tickets. It is suspected that the 10% users might be involved in touting activities. Therefore to deter such touts and to facilitate genuine users, it has been decided that a maximum of 6 tickets can be booked by an individual user in a month. 

India Post to announce about 20000 vacancies soon

Great news for all the government jobs aspirants as Indian Postal Circle is going to announce one of the biggest employment notifications very soon. The recruitment will be organized for selection of eligible staff for Postal Assistant and Sorting Assistant posts on its official site www.indiapost.gov.in. Now all those qualified candidates are invited for 20000 upcoming job opening whose link will be soon available at their official site. This notification will bring good news for those entire aspirants who were looking for government jobs, 10th pass government jobs, 12th pass government jobs, post office jobs etc.

According to report, India post is going to hire candidates for Postal Assistant and Sorting Assistant posts, Stenographers, Postman and Mail Guard, MTS, Postmaster Cadres, Hindi Typist, Inspector, Director Posts, etc. Aspirant must have completed their Matriculation or Intermediate from recognized board and diploma/ graduation/ bachelors or its equivalent in required discipline from recognized university or institute. The online application process will start from February 2016 and will going to end on March 2016.

India Post operates postal system in India. It was founded during British Empire i.e. 01st April, 1774 and operated under Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Govt of India. But, on 31st March 2011 it was officially declared as the Indian Postal Service and currently has more than 154,866 post offices which are located across India. Main headquarter of post office is located in Sansad Marg, New Delhi.

India post is popular among candidates for providing various services such as Letter post, parcel service, EMS, deposit account, third-party logistics freight forwarding, delivery etc. India post is divided into 22 postal circles which is independently headed by chief postmaster general. Currently more than 4, 70,000 employees are working with Indian postal circle. India Post’s main objective is to provide all type of courier service at low cost than other private firm. For the date of official announcement keep going through their official website daily and stay tuned with us for more news related to latest government job vacancy.

Atal Pension Yojana- Salient features

Grant of MACP benefits in the promotional hierarchy - Kerala High Court order stayed by Hon'ble Supreme Court

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PIB likely to approve India Post Payment Bank proposal

The Public Investment Board (PIB) today discussed the Rs 800-crore proposal from the India Post for setting up a payments bank and the final approval on the same is expected in the next meeting. 

"The proposal was discussed in the meeting today but no decision has been taken yet. Another meeting is likely in a week," a official in the postal department told PTI.After the board approval, the proposal will be moved to the Cabinet within a month. The PIB under the Finance Ministry vets investment proposals by state-run entities.The pilot for payments bank is set to start from January 2017 and the full-fledged operations may start by March. 

The department is likely to finalise the consultant for its payments bank by the end of this month. It had shortlisted six consultants but only three of them submitted their bids.The consultant will advise the India Post on setting up of payments bank.As many as 40 international financial conglomerates including World Bank and Barclays have shown interest to partner the postal department for setting up the bank. 

The Reserve Bank has granted payments bank permit to the department, which is already into providing financial services and has 1.55 lakh branches across the country.As per the RBI guidelines, a payments bank can offer limited services such as demand deposits and remittances.They will not be allowed to undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.They will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as other prepaid payment instruments but not credit cards. 

Promotion and posting of a Senior Administrative Grade officer of lndian Postal Service, Group 'A' to the Higher Administrative Grade

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Department's instructions on 3 days dharna from 19.1.16 - 21.1.16 by NJCA

Budget 2015-16- Trade Unions demand hike in Income Tax exemption ceiling to 5 Lakhs

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Deferral of 7th CPC award expected to form part of Finance Ministers budget speech

The announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on February 29.With a massive financial resource crunch estimated for 2016-17, the government is planning to defer the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission award.Last week, the Union Cabinet approved the formation of an empowered committee of secretaries to work out ways for staggering the award through more than one financial year, instead of letting the Rs 1,02,100-crore bill from the implementation of the award come up at one go.

 

A top-ranked official said one of the options for the empowered committee was to defer the increase in allowances for central government employees, while letting the rise in pay for all scales to go through. According to finance ministry figures, the ratio of allowances to pay for these 4.7 million employees is 1:1.4. For instance, the Budget estimates in 2015-16 pegged the salary bill for all central government employees at Rs 60,731 crore, whereas the tab for allowances is Rs 84,437.4 crore.The step would allow Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to keep the Budget numbers for this financial year and the next close to the targeted 3.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) that he has committed himself to. For instance, even if the annual expenditure for 2016-17 were kept at about Rs 18 lakh crore (almost unchanged from Rs 17,77,477 crore in 2015-16), the Pay Commission recommendations would add another 5.5 per cent to it.

Given the sluggish pace of GDP growth and the almost negative deflator, the aggregate Budget numbers would otherwise be impossible to sustain on the back of the current trend in growth of tax receipts - just 50 per cent of the Budget estimates after the first eight months of the year, according to Controller General of Accounts data. The assumptions being worked on in North Block are that these might not change dramatically in the next financial year, too.

The announcement of a deferral is expected to be part of Jaitley's Budget speech on February 29. The formation of an empowered committee for the pay panel recommendations, again a first for the central government, is meant to bring all stakeholders on board in the exercise.The official explained ministry-wise consultations with the department of expenditure in the finance ministry, in the run up to the Budget, were mostly over. Those discussions had proceeded on the assumptions that the Pay Commission recommendations would be implemented. It was now necessary to bring the secretaries of key departments on board about the need for a drastic cut-back on those estimates.

The status quo on allowances would also allow the government to ignore the demand made by various staff associations to raise the minimum level of salary for employees. The Pay Commission has suggested that the minimum should be Rs 18,000 per month; the unions have demanded that it should be raised to a band of Rs 19,000 to Rs 21,000 a month. Such a change would have created a ripple effect. About 70 per cent of the government employees are bunched in the non-executive ranks; the starting salary for them tops about Rs 42,000 a month, show calculations by the Commission. Even a modest increase in pay for them would cascade the bill for the government by another Rs 50,000 crore annually. The award of the Commission is slated to take effect from January 1 this year.

A key element in the plan to defer some elements of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations will be the railway ministry. Government managers reckon the powerful unions of the Indian Railways need to be brought on board for this plan to be successful. The higher wage bill for the Suresh Prabhu-led ministry works out to Rs 28,450 crore a year, only a shade less than the yearly loss it makes on its passenger services at present. No formal communications have been sent out to the railway unions by the committee. "It will follow once the empowered committee has decided to take a call on which allowances to clip," said the official.In a recent television interview, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha had said the Pay Commission recommendations were the biggest headache for his ministry, struggling to keep the aggregate expenditure of the Union government under control.

Features of Rural ICT handheld devices supplied to BOs

As a pilot phase Department of Post has started using solar powered, biometric hand-held devices in rural post office with connectivity along with the application software in selected circles viz. Bihar, UP and Rajasthan.  This move was the outcome of Rural ICT project declared by the Government of India.

Following re the important features or benefits of Hand-held device supplied to Branch Post Offices.

1.  Electronic transactions- Booking and delivery of Speed Post, registered mail, money orders, sale of stamps and postal stationery will be done through these devices and paper receipt shall be generated

2.  Instantaneously thereby eliminating chances of overcharging and other problems associated with manual transactions. Savings Bank deposits & withdrawals, PLI/RPLI premium deposits and loan/claim payments will also be done electronically on these devices.

3.  Immediate uploading of transaction data and financial reconciliation- Using mobile connectivity, data pertaining to all transactions done on the hand-held devices shall be uploaded onto the central server. E-Money order will reach the destination post office instantaneously unlike present day where the money order is digitized at the nearest computerized Post Office and leads to delay in delivery. All financial transactions shall also be reconciled immediately without any manual intervention and Cash on Delivery amount collected in the village shall be immediately credited to the account of e-Commerce Company. Similarly the artisans would be able to fulfill e-commerce orders and receive immediate payment for their sold products online. This will have a positive impact on the overall economy of the villages.

4. Automatic track and trace- Speed Post and Registered letters/parcels and money remittances will be trackable at the Branch Post Office level and booking/delivery information will also be uploaded to central server immediately.

5. Fraud and leakage elimination- As Savings Bank and Postal Life Insurance transactions will be done on a real-time basis and through immediate generation of receipt and voice message, chances of fraud would be eliminated. Biometric authentication of MNREGS and social security beneficiaries at the time of pay-out would also reduce leakage in the schemes

6. Post Offices as Common Service Centres- Branch Post Offices shall be able to work as Common Service Centres and offer services such as Railway Reservation, online bill payment for electricity and water utilities, mobile and DTH recharge, insurance policy premium payments & transactions for partner banks/insurance companies/mutual funds etc.

Allocation of Direct Recruit IPs

Our members aware that CHQ has requested DG Madam vide memo No. GS/AIAIASP/DR-IP-2014/2015 dated 23/12/2015 to allot 102 candidates nominated by SSC on the basis of combined graduate level examination 2014 to circles, and accordingly Directorate vide memo No. 7-10/2014-SPB-II dated 18th January 2016 has allotted the candidates to circles.

 
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India Post to block usage of Public email IDs like Gmail, Yahoo etc in Post offices from 15.02.2016

RATES OF INCOME-TAX AS PER FINANCE ACT, 2015

  As per the Finance Act, 2015, income-tax is required to be deducted under Section 192 of the Act from income chargeable under the head “Salaries” for the financial year 2015-16 (i.e. Assessment Year 2016-17) at the following rates:

Rates of tax : A. Normal Rates of tax:

Rates of tax for every individual, resident in India, who is of the age of sixty years or more but less than eighty years at any time during the financial year:

In case of every individual being a resident in India, who is of the age of eighty years or more at any time during the financial year:

 
 


 Education Cess on Income tax:

The amount of income-tax including the surcharge if any, shall be increased by Education Cess on Income Tax at the rate of two percent of the income-tax.

Secondary and Higher Education Cess on Income-tax:

An additional education cess is chargeable at the rate of one percent of income-tax including the surcharge if any, but not including the Education Cess on income tax.

Full Pension after 33 years or 20 years - latest position

Latest on Pension 33 years or 20 years - Information on Implementation order in M.O. Inasu case

Online RTI Status Form

Registration Number: DP&PW/A/2015/60046

Name: S. Y. Savur

Date of Filing: 20/12/2015

Request filed with Department of Pensions & Pensioners Welfare

Status APPEAL DISPOSED OF as on 12/01/2016

Reply :- Dear Sir

Under the RTI Act the CPIO is required to provide only the information which is available with him/her in the material form. The order of Hon'ble CAT in O. A. No.715/2012 had been implemented in respect of the petitioners in that O.A. even before the dismissal of the Review Petition by Hon'ble Supreme Court. 

The question of implementation of the orders in respect of Pre-2006 pensioners has been under consideration in consultation with the concerned Ministries/ Departments i.e. Ministry of Law, Department of Legal Affairs and Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure and the file has been referred to Department of Legal Affairs on 30.12.2015. 

Thus the information given by the CPIO was correct.

In case you are not satisfied with this order, you may appeal against the decision to the Central Information Commission within 90 days, as per the RTI Act.

Harjit Singh

Deputy Secretary & Appellate Authority

Tel: 24624752