No. Memorandum/7th CPC/Mar’15
dated 24th March,2015
To
The Hon’ble Chairman,
7th Central Pay
Commission,
B-14/A, Chatrapati Shivaji
Bhawan,
Qutub Institution Area
New Delhi
Sub: A brief representation of facts in connection
with 7th CPC Memorandum, submitted by on 18th July,2014.
Ref: D.O. NO: 7CPC/158/Meetings/2015
Respected Sir,
A
brief representation of facts ,we want to narrate
1) Although
it seems that, we have been representing the Circle Administrative Offices of
the Department of Posts only but in reality we have been functioning for
various Ministries and Departments including issuance of PAN Cards, Voters I
Cards, safe delivery of Question Papers and Answer Papers of various examining
bodies like UPSC, SSC, CBSE, ICSE etc. Moreover, action has already been
initiated for managements of All Government Services requiring registration,
certification or govt. over-sight including Aadhar Card and Ration Cards, bill
correction and payment on behalf of Government departments by the Department of Post.
2) In
the Secretariat, significant element for directly recruited Assistants is 50%
whereas in our case, 75% of posts are for directly recruited Assistants of
Postal Circle Administrative Offices & 25% through LGO examination. In
Central Secretariat Service many people who started their carrier as Assistants
are automatically being promoted on the basis of seniority criterion because of
15% reservation exclusively for them. In other way, Central Secretariat
acknowledges and promotes that the task of a secretariat in the cadre of
Assistants can even be managed on the basis of seniority. Whereas in our case
there is no scope of getting promoted to the cadre of assistants, the sole
criterion being recruitment through competitive exams only which clearly
defines the importance and qualitative aspects of the assistants of the Circle
Administrative Offices.
3) For
the Assistants of Circle Administrative Offices, minimum educational
qualification was 10+2 with 60% minimum marks, people with almost 94% marks
applied for Assistant Cadre and recently w.e.f 27.01.2014, simply 10+2 class
pass is the criterion suggested by DOP&T whereas, in almost all the Circle Administrative offices, it is graduation/
Post-graduation and even Engineering graduates with multi-skilled efficiency
and Computer Knowledge staff are working as Assistants.
Despite
the above facts the educational qualification for the assistants has been fixed
as 10+2, which may be best explained by the Department itself only.
4) In
the Railway Administrative Offices, the Assistants cadres were upgraded long
ago through Restructuring. Assistants of the office of the Comptroller and
Auditor General of India, 80% of the posts have been upgraded. In Income Tax
deptt. , the Assistants were placed in better scale compared to the Assistants
of staff of Postal Administrative offices. Assistants of the office of the
GM(Postal Accounts), sub-ordinate to Circle Administrative Offices are also
drawing better promotional avenues than the Assistants of Circle Administrative
Offices.
Grade
pay of the Managers of “D” type canteen has been upgraded to Rs 4,200/- vide
VIth CPC order dated 3.04.2005, whereas we have been suffering badly.
5) a)
Circle Administrative offices have to enforce and execute the policy and
program of the Central Government pertaining to the Postal Services like other
Ministries and Departments in addition to ensure and supervise the efficiency
of Postal Services in the state/circle.
b)
It has to discharge all administrative and financial responsibility delegated to
the state/circle heads.
c)
It has to regulate and supervise Railway Mail Service within the territorial
jurisdiction of the state/circle.
d)
It has to control the budget for all wings of Services.
e)
It has to function as a Quasi Judiciary Institution being the appellate
authority in the matter of Deptt. proceedings.
f)
Circle Administrative Offices are the clearing houses of rulings.
g)
It has to take necessary measures to collect revenue of the department and to
formulate measures for fall in revenue.
h)
It has to conduct investigation of loss and fraud cases of the department.
i)
It has to ensure welfare of the employees in Postal and RMS Divisions including
scholarship, compassionate appointment, and medical reimbursement and sports
events.
j)
It has to play significant role for IT projects by arranging workshops,
training, personal interactions and productivity of various softwares are also
monitored by Circle Administrative Offices.
k)
Apart from the traditional services, the staff of Circle Administrative Offices
are also involved and also exerting their best in connection with business
development and Marketing of its new products like speed post, business post,
print to post, Express parcel and business parcel. Bill mail service, e-post, Media
post, e-payment, retail post & logistic post.
6)
It has to regulate and supervise savings bank and savings certificate scheme of
Govt. of India. Thus , it has to act as the head of the state of the largest
savings bank of India.
In
the year 2013-14, the POSB operations of India post had more than 32 crore live
accounts with outstanding balance of more than 6 lakh crores. The number of
fraud and loss cases reported during the same period were only 634 involving Rs
21 Crores (.000035%) of total deposits. Even in these cases the major part of
the amount involved is recoverable from fraudulent persons or the employees
found negligent in their duties.
7)
Circle Administrative Offices have to regulate and supervise the entire Postal
life insurance & Rural Postal Life Insurance work (1995). Thus , the Circle
Office has to analyze and critically examine the works of insurance business
like Life Insurance Corporation of India.
As
of end March, 2014, the Deptt. of Post was operating over 54 lakh PLI policies, with an aggregate
sum assured of nearly Rs 102,276 crores. The number of policies under the RPLI
schemes was over 1.5 crore, with an assured sum of over Rs 79,466 crores.
8)
Vivid description of distribution of works done among the sections in Circle
Administrative Offices have elaborately been narrated between Page 11 to 32 of
our memorandum submitted to Hon’ble VIIth
CPC Chairman & Secretary. Duties of the MTS, Gr-C (erstwhile
Group-D) have been narrated at Page 38 of the Memorandum.
9)
The specialties of the staff working in Postal Circle Administrative Offices
have been narrated at pages 42,43, 44,47,48 & 49.
10) The
working pattern of the Assistants and Supervisors in Circle Administrative offices, is still not being a
stereo type or proforma based or of
routine nature. Besides having the proficiency/ administrative skills for decision making or making drafts including
the DO drafts (which were earlier
being done by Stenographers) and ‘by analysing
policy implications with reference on the matter, requires both the operational and managerial works.
Confidential letters, dealing with VIP
complaints, Parliamentary Questions and interpreting the rules along with Banking and Insurance Sectors’
control and functioning, have since long
increased the gravity/role of Postal Assistants in Circle Administrative Offices and in reality, we
have been functioning and dealing with
the matters which are more complex than that of the Assistants of Postal/RMS offices & even that of Central
Secretariat offices.
Considering all those aspects, we have
proposed higher scale of pay for the
staff of Circle Administrative Offices.
Promotional Avenues and our resentments.
1) For
decades long the Circle Administrative offices had the LDC and UDC staffing
pattern and it was only on 22-07-1993, the Department of Posts through an order
changed the staffing pattern implementing TBOP/BCR scheme in those offices
w.e.f 26-06-1993.
After the implementation of TBOP/BCR scheme,
66.66% of UDC who were in the scale of pay of Rs 1200-Rs2040
were placed in the downgraded scale of Rs 975------------Rs
1660/-, 20% functional
LSG
posts in the scale of Rs 1400----Rs 2300 and 10% UDC Spl Pay posts
were surrendered.
Moreover, 10% posts in the basic cadre were
abolished. Thus, from
the
year 2000 onwards 10%+18% (@2% each year upto 2009) equal
to
28%, if not more, posts in the PACO cadre were abolished. The
net
gain by the Department was Rs 1,41,295 per month for a big
Circle
like UP or Bihar or West Bengal or Tamil Nadu in 1993. Thus,
the
Govt gained by more than Rs 4 Crore per year by introduction of
TBOP/BCR.
The magnitude of huge savings by the Deptt. Of Posts
upto
31.08.2008 (MACP introduced w.e.f 01-09-2008) i.e for 15
years
was approximately Rs 60Crores, if not more. Then came ban
order
and accordingly the 1/3rd of the vacancies were filled up and the
rests
were abolished.
1) Supervisors:
They are appointed from amongst the Seniormost officials and posted against
Norm Based LSG, HSG-II and HSG-I posts. They have been entrusted with higher
responsibility involved in the main stream of development process. Their accountability
is that they are middle level managerial staff. Surprisingly, they are not
getting higher scale or benefit for their accountability and responsibility. On
the contrary, even the Special pay is being offered for officers where as
Section Supervisors are not.
Scope
of promotion to LSG, HSG-II and HSG-I cadre has been drastically marginalised. Number of LSG posts in Circle
Administrative Offices including the
Office of Director, Postal Life Insurance is 250 throughout the country and that of HSG-II is 57, both figures are
subjected to variation depending upon the
workload. This meagre number of LSG
and HSG-II posts is causing Lack of supervision. HSG-I posts are much less in number. Thus, regular
promotion after long years of service
to the department is bleak and a feeling of demoralization is being badly felt.
More and more number of Posts for LSG,
HSG-II and HSG-I cadres with financial
benefit need to be provided on top priority basis. To ensure better monitoring
and efficiency, supervisors should be awarded special pay.
2)
STAFF STRENGTH
In 23
Circles including office of the Director, PLI and 37 Regional Postmaster Generals’ offices, the total
number of Posts for the Assistants and
Supervisors will not exceed even 3600 and number of MTS would not exceed even 800.
We
earnestly request the Hon’ble Chairman Sir of 7th CPC that Direct recruitment for the posts of Postal Assistants
should be through the SSC and minimum
educational qualification should be Graduate.
New emerging scenario
The
new areas of Postal Operations under business development activities are
growing like anything and helping the department for generating an appreciable
amount of revenue and role played by the staff of Circle Administrative Offices
is increasing day by day. The services like speed post, business post, print to
post, Express parcel and Business parcel, Bill Mail Service, e-post, Media
post, E-payment and
Retail
Post are increasing our revenues many folds. Further e-commerce business also
increasing its network to help the department to earn more and more revenues.
Therefore,
the role of the officials working in the Circle Administrative Offices need to
be reassessed and justice is to be done for their betterment. This is our
earnest appeal to our Hon’ble Chairman Sir of 7th CPC.
Yours
faithfully,
(Pranab
Bhattacharjee)
General
Secretary
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