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