WHY HBA IS BETTER THAN HOUSE
LOAN GRANTED BY PSU BANKS?
IT IS A FACT THAT AFTER IMPLEMENTATION OF SIXTH PAY COMMISSION
RECOMMENDATIONS HOUSE BUILDING ADVANCE (CALLED AS HBA) GRANTED BY CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT TO ITS EMPLOYEES LOST ITS CHARM AS IT IS NO LONGER A HOUSE LOAN
COMMENSURATE WITH THE PRESENT COST OF CONSTRUCTION.
The very term “pay in pay band” put in the place of “Basic Pay”
after 6cpc implementation has made most of the damage as it has reduced the
eligible amount of HBA. Alternatively, Pay in Pay band plus Grade pay should
have been taken for calculation of eligible amount of HBA, as Pay in pay band +
Grade pay form the Basic Pay of an employee after 6CPC for all purposes (For
example DA, HRA, NPA etc are calculated only based on pay in pay band + grade
pay).
So, it is a common grievance of all Central Government Employees
that HBA should be based pay in band and Grade Pay.
The remaining damage for reduction of eligible amount of HBA are
done by the conditions after 6CPC that Maximum ceiling of HBA is Rs.7.5 lakhs
and that number of times of pay in pay band taken for calculating eligible HBA
amount is 34 times only.
Why HBA is better than House Loan granted by PSU banks?
The very reason for which a Central Government Employee wanted
to go for HBA rather than house loan granted by all PSU Banks and financial
Institutions is the rate of interest charged for House Loan. While House
Building Advance Scheme of Central Government charges interest ranging from
6.5% to 9.5% from the year 2003 depending on HBA amount sanctioned, PSU banks
or financial institutions charge not less than 10.5 % presently. The other
major benefit in the House Building Advance Scheme is the Quantum of monthly
recovery. While PSU Banks recovers part of Principal and Interest at the same
time on monthly basis which is called as EMI, HBA Scheme allows for recovery of
principal amount only, for a period up to 180 months and interest thereafter
for a period not exceeding 60 months. So, the quantum of monthly recovery
amount for a particular loan amount under HBA scheme would be very lesser than
EMI charged for same Loan amount taken from PSU banks.
We hope Government would come up with suitable amendments to
rectify this common grievance of central government employees soon.
In fact, as per 6CPC recommendations the existing HBA scheme
should be replaced with a New HBA Scheme as per which Government should tie up
with leading PSU Banks for grant of housing loan at competitive rates to
Central Government Employees and out of the interest charged by the banks for
the housing loan, 2% of the interest should be subsidized by the Central
Government (In the case of employees with disability the interest subsidy will
be 4%).
However, this new HBA scheme is yet take off and in the mean
time Ministry of Urban Development has issued Office Memorandum No:
I-17011/11(4)/2008-H.III dated 27.11.2008 for revision in house building
advance in which Maximum ceiling for cost of construction, HBA amount ceiling
and number of times of pay in pay band to calculate eligible HBA have been
revised to Rs.30 lakhs, Rs.7.5 lakhs and 34 times of pay in pay band
respectively.
***********************
Minister of State for Railways Mr.Bharatsinh Solanki has informed in
the Rajya Sabha that already notifications for filling up 1,90,000 vacancies in
Indian Railways have been issued by Ministry of Railways recently. The full
text of this Rajya Sabha Q&A published in Rajya Sabha Website is as follows.
Rajya Sabha Q&A on filling up 1.90 lakhs vacancies in Indian
Railways
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-894 by SHRI SABIR ALI
(a) the details of safety related vacancies in Railways as on 30
June, 2012 and since when these have been lying vacant; and
(b) the steps being taken to fill up the existing vacancies on
priority basis?
ANSWERED ON-17.08.2012 by MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF
RAILWAYS (SHRI BHARATSINH SOLANKI)
(a) The number of vacancies in safety category posts as on
01.04.2012 is 149271 (provisional). Arising and filling of vacancies is a
continuous process. Vacancies arise due to normal retirement, voluntary
retirements, deaths, promotions, creation of posts, etc.
(b) The policy of the Railway Administration is to fill up
available vacancies promptly as per laid down procedures. Notifications for
filling up of about 1,90,000 posts, including safety category posts have
already been issued.
**********************************************************************
UTILIZATION
OF POSTAL NETWORK
WAGE
DISBURSAL SCHEME UNDER MGNREGS
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act was notified in the remaining 274 districts of India from 1st
April, 2008. The Act is now effective in the entire rural areas of the country
covering 638 districts and has been renamed “The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)”. The objective of the Act is to provide for
the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the
country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in
every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do
unskilled manual work.
The scheme of disbursement of NREGS wages through post offices is operational
in 19 postal Circles of the country (except Delhi, J&K and Tamilnadu
Circles). Till 31st March, 2012, 5.59 crore MGNREGS accounts have been opened
in post offices and wages amounting to Rs. 7,860 crore have been disbursed to
MGNREGS beneficiaries during 2011-12 through 98,491 post offices across the
country.
Main Features of Payment of Wages through Post
Offices
*Payment to be made through Savings Bank accounts of post
offices (zero balance workers wage account).
*Disbursement of wages within the prescribed time frame.
*Provision for advance deposit of one month’s wage in the Head
Post office of the District Headquarter.
*Co-ordination meetings between Department and State Government
authorities.
* Data Collection for Rural Consumer Price Index
A mechanism has been worked out to calculate and disseminate the consumer price
index with the help of data being collected for 1,181 villages through selected
post offices throughout the country. The first set of consumer price indices
was brought out in February 2011. India Post is thus playing a crucial role in
providing Infrastructural support to enable the concerned government
departments to design and implement policies to improve the well being of all
the citizens of India.
Mail Network Optimization Project
Department of Post had initiated Mail Network Optimization Project in March
2010 with a view to streamline mail operations and to improve the quality of
mail related services offered to the people. It involved optimization of the
erstwhile mail network, standardization of processes and development of an
effective performance monitoring system. As part of this project, the
operational network for Speed Post and other categories of mail has been
restructured leading to optimized network and simplified operations.
Speed Post is a premium product offered by the Department with time bound
delivery and tracking facility. As part of the project, a major emphasis
has been laid on providing complete tracking information for Speed Post items
on the website (www.indiapost.gov.in) for the benefit of the people using Speed
Post. As a result, in the last two years, the number of items having complete
tracking information on the website has gone up from 63 lakhs to 2.78 Crores
per month. Speed Post transit has improved by more than a day on an
average across the network.
A comprehensive online monitoring system for Speed Post operations has been
developed and performance of operational units is monitored in terms of Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) on a day-to-day basis.
(PIB Features.)
**********************
SLP FILED IN
HON. SUPREME COURT AGAINST KARNATAKA HIGH COURT DECISION ON FIXATION OF PAY ON
PROMOTION TO PO & RMS ACCOUNTANTS DISMISSED.
Despite our request not to file any SLP on the High Court
Karnataka decision on fixation of pay of PO & RMS accountants on promotion,
the Department has filed SLP in the Supreme Court as per the opinion of the
Ministry of Finance. Now the Supreme Court has dismissed the SLP. Now the
Department has no option except implement the Karnataka CAT and High Court decision.
The Department should come forward to implement the decision to all the
similarly situated persons.
Kudos
to Karnataka Comrades.
The
Supreme Court has fined Rs. 50000/- to Department
A remarkable and marvelous decision.
ITEM NO.9 COURT NO.5
SECTION IVA
S U P R E M E C O U R T
O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil)....../2012 CC
10080/2012
(From
the judgement and order dated 18/11/2010 in WP No.7593/2003, of The HIGH COURT
OF KARNATAKA AT BANGALORE)
CHIEF
POST MASTER GEN.KARNATAKA CIR.& ORS
Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
S.MOHANKUMAR
Respondent(s)
(With
appln(s) for c/delay in filing SLP)
Date:
05/07/2012 This Petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.S. SINGHVI
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHANSU JYOTI MUKHOPADHAYA
For
Petitioner(s) Mr. R.P.
Bhatt, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Ashok K. Srivastava, Adv.
Ms. B Sunita Rao, Adv.
Mr. B. Krishna
Prasad,Adv.(Not present)
For
Respondent(s)
UP ON hearing counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
This petition filed for setting aside order dated 18.11.2010 passed by the
Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court is accompanied by an application for
condonation of 445 days delay.
We have heard Shri. R. P. Bhatt, learned senior counsel representing the
petitioners and carefully perused the averments contained in the
application filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act and are convinced that
there is no valid ground to accept the explanation offered by the petitioners
for delayed filing of the special leave petition.
We are further of the view that the Bangalore Bench of the Central
Administrative Tribunal did not commit any error by quashing the action taken
by the petitioners to re-fix the respondent's pay on the recommendations of the
Vth Pay Commission and the High Court rightly declined to entertain the
petitioners' challenge to the order of the Tribunal.
Learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners could not put forward any
tangible argument to support re-fixation of the respondent's pay in the light
of the recommendations of the Vth Pay Commission. Therefore, we do not find any
valid ground to interfere with the impugned order.
The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed on the ground of delay and
also on merits.
For filing a frivolous petition like the present one, the petitioners are
saddled with costs of rupees fifty thousand which shall be deposited by them
with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within a period of eight weeks
from today. It will be open to the Central Government to recover the amount of
costs from the officers responsible for taking wholly arbitrary and unjustified
action for re-fixing the respondent's pay.
(Parveen
Kr.Chawla)
Court
Master
(Phoolan Wati Arora)
Court Master
(Phoolan Wati Arora)
Court Master
CLARIFICATION
ON PAYMENT OF INCENTIVE TO THE POSTMAN STAFF FOR DELIVERY OF SPEED POST
ARTICLES CONTAINING ADHAR CARDS
Ministry of Communications
& Information
SH KAPIL SIBAL DEDICATES
AUTOMATED MAIL PROCESSING CENTRE, DELHI TO THE NATION AMPC CAPABLE OF SORTING
10 LAKH MAIL PER DAY
OCR System Recognizes
the Pincode and Address for Taking Sorting Decision
Sh Kapil Sibal, the
Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, dedicated
Automated Mail Processing Centre (AMPC) Delhi to the nation here this morning.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Sibal said that Department of Posts has to gear
up to the challenges of 21st century in a comprehensive manner. These efforts
will go a long way in making DoP a more efficient, reliable and trustworthy
organization.
AMPC Delhi is an
important milestone for the Department of Posts in its attempt to provide a
reliable, efficient, safe and cost effective postal service to the nation. AMPC
Delhi has been set up with the aim of modernizing mail processing in India
Post. A Letter Sorting machine (LSM) and one Mixed Mail Sorter (MMS) has been
installed at AMPC Delhi at a cost of about Rs 42 crores. These sorting machines
utilize state-of-the-art Optical Character Recognition (OCR)- Video Coding
System (VCS) that can read the address written on the mail pieces and sort them
to the correct destination. The LSM has a sorting speed of 35,000 letters per
hour and MMS can process 20,000 ordinary as well as Registered and Speed Post
letters, packets and small parcels per hour.
The LSM can sort
letters/postcards/Inland letter Cards from 3 gms to 20 gms. As the letter
enters into the LSM, a very high speed camera takes a picture of the address
written on it and sends it to the OCR server for digitization and recognition.
The OCR system recognizes the pincode as well as the address elements in the
written address and takes a sorting decision on the basis of inputs received
from the written address and the address database which has been created for
the sorting systems. In case the OCR is not able to take a sorting decision
then the image is sent to the Video coder who just sees the image on his/her
computer screen and then types the pincode or the city/town name to sort the
article to the correct destination. This entire process takes few seconds to
get completed while the letter is still moving inside the LSM.
The MMS is an open
conveyor based system which can sort any kind of letter, flat, packet or small
parcels (from 5 gms to 5 kgs) and utilizes the same OCR-VCS system for sorting.
Both the machines share the common OCR-VCS servers. MMS has the ability to the
read the tracking barcode pasted/printed on the article and generate a manifest
along with a unique bag label for the sorted mail so that track and trace for
each individual article processed on the MMS is available on the internet.
As compared to the old
style mail centres, setting up of AMPC has enabled the Department to consolidate
the mail operations in a big city like Delhi. The entire first class and speed
post mail of Delhi which was earlier handled at more than 12 smaller mail
sorting centres is now consolidated at AMPC because of its ability to process
almost 1 million mail pieces per day. Mail operations at AMPC not only enhance
the speed of mail processing but also lead to a better efficiency and improved
quality. State-of-the-art facilities have also been provided to the staff
working at AMPC Delhi in order to improve their efficiency and motivation
level. The LSM requires only 7 Clerks (SA) and 5 Multi-Skilled Staff (MTS) per
shift (8 hours) to operate and produces an output of over 3 lakh mail pieces;
the same work requires at least 30 clerks and 10 MTS. Similarly, the MMS
requires almost 10 clerks (SA) and 18 MTS per shift to process almost 1 lakh
speed post articles; the same work would require 25 clerks and 30 MTS in a
manual environment.
The maximum advantage of
using the machines is in the area of quality control as missort rate can be
brought considerably down in good address quality mail. In case of MMS,
multiple handling is also reduced as the tracking barcode of the speed post
articles are automatically scanned by the machines while they are being sorted.
Also, the entire mail gets sorted in one run as the number of sorting
selections in LSM (304 selections) and MMS (152 selections) are enough to sort
all the mail pieces in one sort program. This is in contrast to the manual
sorting where the sorting cases have only 48 or 72 pigeon holes and some
destinations have to be sorted in the second stage.
At AMPC there is a
separate area for processing mail pieces which are not of machinable standards.
The work flow of AMPC Delhi has been designed like an assembly line where-in
the un-processed mail enters the facility from one end and gets dispatched from
the other end after getting processed manually or on the automated systems.
The AMPC building has
been constructed by DIAL in lieu of the old AMPC building which was acquired
for laying the metro line. The construction started in October 2010 and was
completed in October 2011. The building has been built on a plot of almost
10,000 sq mts size and the built up area is about 7000 sq mts on ground and
first floor. The building has a 24 hour power back-up and a security system
with state-of-the-art IP camera based CCTV system. Almost 500 staff, including
about 60 ladies are working in AMPC in three shifts.
A similar facility has
also been set up in Kolkata which shall also be inaugurated in a few weeks
time. The sorting machines of AMPC Delhi are the new generation machines as
compared to the Letter Sorting Machines installed at AMPC Mumbai in 1993 and at
AMPC Chennai in 1996 which did not have the automatic address reading ability
and were dependent on the coders to code all the mail pieces for sending them
to their destinations.
Senior officers of the
Department of Posts and the MLA of the area were also present on the occasion.
BK/AT
(Release ID: 86370) (PIB)
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