Paramilitary forces to get "organised services" status

With the 'One Rank, One Pension' (OROP) scheme formilitary veterans set to be notified soon, officials of central paramilitary forces, too, may be in for good news soon as the government is likely to take a final decision on granting of "organised services" status to them.

Through grant of such status, as ordered by Delhi High Court in September this year, the officials of forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) will get fasterpromotions, hike in emoluments and other service-related benefits from a period dating back to 2006.
In a significant order by a division bench of Justices Kailash Gambhir and Najmi Waziri on September 3, Delhi High Court had asked the Centre to consider these forces as "organisedservices" and ensure non-functional financial upgradation (NFU) from 2006 in terms of the 6th Pay Commission.

"Home Ministry, the cadre-controlling authority of these officers, will soon take a final call in this regard as the court had given it eight weeks' time to issue orders. That deadline will expire in the first week of November," sources in the security establishment said.

They said the chiefs of these forces have also submitted their respective reports in this regard to the Home Ministry and have indicated that such upgradation should be granted to these personnel.

"Some officials of these forces, retired and serving, have also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this regard recently. He has assured them that the government will come out with itsfinal decision soon," they said.

Sources added that the government may take the final call on the issue post the declaration of Bihar poll results on November 8 as the model code of conduct is in place till then.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had yesterday said that the notification for the implementation of the OROP scheme for military veterans will be made "within days" of the Bihar poll process coming to an end.

"The government also has the option of filing a Special Leave Petition in Supreme Court for challenging the Delhi HC order. But the forces have requested the Ministry not to take this step and instead implement the HC order, as that would be a morale booster," they said.
Source : NDTV

35 percent salary hike, increasing the minimum pay to Rs.21,000, 4 MACP promotions,

7th Pay Commission likely to recommend work-from-home options for physically handicapped, women employees

7th Pay Commission likely to recommend work-from-home options for physically handicapped, women employees

“The 7th Pay Commission is finding out if there are possibilities for differently-abled and women employees of the Central Government to work from home.”

According to sources, the 7th Pay Commission has sought for the opinion of the Department of Information and Technology regarding this option. The 7th Pay Commission has asked to study the possibilities of differently-abled and women workers to perform simple and specialized tasks from home and stay connected via the internet and other telecommunication tools.

The 7th Pay Commission has asked the Department of Information and Technology to identify such jobs for the less than 10,000 differently-abled workers who are currently employed by the Central Government.

Sources also say that Flexi-time Working Hours options are being considered for the more than 3.5 lakh women who are employed by the Central Government.

Since it is impossible for both these segments of workers to work during night shifts, the 7th Pay Commission is looking for options to employ them in specialized monetary and supervisory works which could be performed from home. It is being said that the step will be of tremendous relief for employees who have to travel long distance to reach their offices, and for the employees who work in congested offices.

It can be inferred that the 7th Pay Commission is particular about giving priority to women and differently-abled workers. Sources say that the 7th Pay Commission believes that greater productivity could be expected from them.

It is a well-known fact that telecommuting and work-from-hope options have become very popular in the private sectors and highly specialized tasks are sometimes performed this way. The 7th Pay Commission wants to bring in this work culture to the Central Government jobs too.

Meanwhile, news and updates about the 7th Pay Commission continue to flow into the news media. The Commission is very likely to submit its report to the Government by the end of December. Sources say that the final stage of preparing the report is now on.

Speculations about 35 percent salary hike, increasing the minimum pay to Rs.21,000, 4 MACP promotions, modernizing the CGHS medical facilities, and most importantly, about the retirement age, continue to surface. Readers are requested to not believe in any of them because all of them are mere figments of the writers’ imagination.

30 years of service or at the age of 55 years

Recently the news about retirement age is blown out of proportion in Social Media. In Social Media it has been signaled casually that the retirement age will be brought down to 58 years. Initially it was said that 7th pay commission going to recommend the criteria for retirement age as either 33 years of Service or 60 Years of age whichever comes first.

And gradually it is reduced to 58years of age or 33 years of service and finally ends up with 30 years of service or at the age of 55 years.

                                                7th pay commission Vs Retirement Age

Does it worth to believe the news circulated in social media about 7th pay commission recommendation and retirement age..? We asked the Federation sources about this and they want to maintain anonymity told that it depends upon the individuals to decide whether it is true or not. We should not blame the media for everything. We should be able to know the difference between the news and rumors.

One of our Sources told that revising the retirement age will not fall under the purview of Pay commission. It should be decided by central government only. No Pay commission has recommended anything about Retirement age so far.
Federation Leaders were asked about this retirement age issue, when it became sensational in Print and e-Media, why don’t they come forward to clear the doubts on this sensational issue?. They told that they didn’t want do give importance to the rumors and hear says.

They said, “We need to clarify the doubts of our cadres across the country whenever it was rumored in social media about their service related sensational issues. But when sensational becomes routine, it’s not our business to respond to such hearsays on daily basis”

“As far as retirement age is concerned we know that 7th pay commission cannot recommend revising the retirement age of central government employees, since it does not fall under the purview of 7th Pay Commission. Even we won’t accept it if the central government tries to reduce the retirement age,” the sources added.

Housing satisfaction level in the CISF, CRPF and ITBP is only 12.06 percent

Construction of residential houses of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP)

Construction of Houses and barracks at various establishments of CISF, CRPF and ITBP

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today has given its approval for construction of 13072 houses and 113 barracks of various types at 68 locations of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) during 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017). This will be at an estimated cost of Rs.3090.98 crore. The main components include construction of 13072 residential houses (Type-ll, III, IV, V & VI) and 113 barracks (Type- Men Barrack-120, 150,180, 240, 252, 264, 360) at 68 locations of CISF, CRPF and ITBP.

The existing housing satisfaction level in the CISF, CRPF and ITBP is about 12.06 percent, and after the completion of the proposed project, the satisfaction level will reach to 15.13 percent. This project will meet the urgent need to improve the efficiency of the Forces with increasing housing satisfaction level. The improved housing satisfaction level will boost the morale of CAPF, improving the efficiency to deal with law and order, Counter Insurgency (Operation), Anti-Naxal Operations and guarding India’s international border.

Seventh Pay Commission Should Think About Better Pay To Root Out Corruption

Corruption is rampant in many of the central government’s offices, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning on August 15, that corruption was eating away at India “like a termite”.

Seventh Central Pay Commission Chairman Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur

Accordingly, the Seventh Pay Commission should consider to root out corruption in the Indian bureaucracy and the government official system.

50 lakh central government employees and 56 lakh pensioners including dependents will receive increases in basic salaries and pensions of between 30% to 40% in the next fiscal.

It is agreed with the Seventh Pay Commission that a salary and pension increase are warranted, but think it is long overdue to start taking a more systematic approach to revising pay and pension rates for central government employees and pensioners.

The central government constitutes the Pay Commission almost every 10 years to revise the pay scale and pension of its employees and often states also implement the Pay Commission’s recommendations after some modifications.

Hence, 10 years Pay Commission awards create uncertainty and bring inflation risks, it only belatedly acknowledges large rises in the cost of living and the benefits to staff of this increase, will soon start eroding.

It is in the interests of both the tax-payer and government employees, for the central government to take a more systematic approach to revision of the pay of central government employees in periodical intervals.

A better policy would be for the commission to review salary rates at least every two years and to adopt a formula linking salary increases to changes in inflation and to improvements in productivity and revenue gains.

A rational evidence-based approach would also bring the benefit of providing certainty and improving planning for future budgets.

In the longer term, it will also make it easier for the government to move towards a system that enables government officials to be paid wages which are at least comparable to, if not competitive with, the top private sectors.

Such a move would help to start countering the criminally extortionate mind-set which embeds corruption in many government posts as a way of mitigating low wages. Better-paid staff are more motivated in performing their jobs well and in working to root out corruption.

Implementing such an approach to government employees salaries has been shown to work very well in countries such as Singapore. If we are to emulate this here, the government also needs to take a more rational approach to managing is resources.

This would allow the government to pay, recruit, and retain higher quality government officials and begin to root out corruption and poor quality in public services, once and for all.