EXTRACTS FROM centralgovernmentemployees.blogspot.in
- Terms of Reference of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
- Implement One Rank, One Pension Soon, MoD Told
- Sanction of Pension Simplified and Streamlined
- Cabinet likely to approve Rs1,000/month minimum pension
- Expectations for 50% DA Merger and Retirement age turn into disappointments-Gservants
- PRESS NOTE REGARDING CASHLESS TREATMENT IN CGHS EMPANELLED HOSPITALS.
GREETINGS RB KISHORE, VP, AIRIEF
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES
Dated : 06.03.2014
The Secretary,Department of Personnel & Training,New Delhi – 110001
Dear Sir,
Sub : – Terms of Reference of the 7th Central Pay Commission.
I) We have gone through the Terms of Reference of 7th Central Pay Commission approved and notified by the Government on 28.02.2014. We find that the Terms of Reference finalized by the Government is at variance in many respects to the Draft Terms of Reference the Staff Side had submitted to you on 25.10.2013 after holding in-house discussion on 24.10.2013.
At the conclusion of the meeting held on 24.10.2013, it was agreed that the Government would consider our suggestions in the matter and will convene another meeting with the presence of the Secretary (Expenditure) to iron out the differences, if any, and explore the possibilities of an agreement in the matter.
We regret to inform you that no such meeting was convened and no attempt was made by the Official Side to arrive at an agreed Terms of Reference. We find that the Government has rejected the suggestions of Staff side for either taking a decision in the matter of Interim Relief, Merger of DA, representation of labour nominee in the Commission itself, inclusion of the Grameen Dak Sewaks within the purview of the 7th CPC, bringing parity in pension between the past and present pensioners, covering the employees appointed on or after 01.01.2004 within the ambit of the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme, date of effect, settlement of the pending items in the National Anomaly Committee etc. or referring those issues to the Commission itself for an Interim Report.
Besides, we are to state that the existing Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) Scheme, being a bilateral agreement, cannot be subjected to scrutiny and examination by the 7th CPC.
We, therefore request you to kindly convene a meeting of the Standing Committee of National Council (JCM) to discuss the issue, so as to make amendments to the Terms of Reference finalized by the Government arbitrarily.
Yours faithfully,
FNPO & Member, NFPE & Member
II) Implement One Rank, One Pension Soon, MoD Told
Defence Minister A K Antony directed his ministry’s accounts department to immediately take steps for implementation of the ‘One Rank-One Pension’ decision.
At a meeting chaired by him , he had assured the Armed Forces that the Centre was “fully committed” to implement the OROP policy, which was accepted to be implemented from the 2014-15 financial year and an interim budget of `500 crore was earmarked for the same. The policy, when implemented, would cost `1,800 crore in the next fiscal, with a 10 per cent increase in the pay-out every year hence.
Antony told the meeting to discuss modalities for OROP implementation that required funds would be made available for the scheme.
Chairing a meeting of Armed Forces top brass and MoD senior officials here, Antony pointed out that Finance Minister P Chidambaram had clarified that the `500 crore made available for the OROP scheme was only “indicative” of the government’s intent to implement the long-pending demand.
Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh, Defence Secretary R K Mathur, Secretary Ex-Servicemen Welfare Sangita Gairola, Secretary Defence Finance Arunava Dutt, the three services vice chiefs and Adjutant General from the Services headquarters were present at the meeting, a ministry release said.
It was noted that “OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement in the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.
“This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.”
Antony told the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) to initiate immediate necessary steps in consultation with the three services, MoD Finance and Department of ESW to give effect to the decision.
III) Sanction of Pension Simplified and Streamlined
As a part of a larger mandate of streamlining and simplifying the sanction of pension and payment process, the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has taken steps towards minimizing delays in sanction and disbursement of pension, and making the process more transparent.
The objective is to simplify the forms as well as to do away with the requirement of submission of affidavit and to accept all information and documents on the basis of Self certification. 26 forms under CCS Pension Rules (1972) have been reviewed and modified where necessary. The revised forms have been posted on the website of the Department www.persmin.nic.in.
The Department proposes to dispense with the requirement of a number of nomination forms for various benefits like GPF, CGEGIS, arrear of Pension and commutation of Pension by the employees.Instead, an employee will be required to fill up only one Nomination Form during the service and another nomination Form at the time of retirement. Amendment to the Forms and relevant rules in this respect would be notified by the Department very soon.
Revision of Forms under General/Contributory Provident Fund Rules, Extraordinary Pension Rules and Commutation of Pension Rules is under process.The Department is also reviewing the Rules with a view to reducing the time prescribed for sanction of pension from the current 24-30 months to a more reasonable 12 months.
An online pension sanction and payment tracking system ‘Bhavishya’ has been launched, initially in 15 Ministries. This will enable retiring government servants to themselves track progress of sanction of pension and other retirement dues against the time lines prescribed.
Union Cabinet is likely to approve the proposal to ensure Rs 1,000 minimum monthly pension under the pension scheme run by retirement fund body EPFO, which would immediately benefit 28 lakh pensioners.
According to sources, the proposal is listed in the agenda of the meeting of the Union Cabinet scheduled.
The move to ensure Rs 1,000 minimum pension under Employees' Pension Scheme-95 will immediately benefit about 28 lakh pensioners including five lakh widows. There are about 44 lakh pensioners.
Earlier this month the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) trustees had approved the proposal to provide an entitlement of minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000.The Central Board of Trustees (CBT), the apex decision making body of EPFO had met on February 5, and decided to amend the EPS-95 scheme for the purpose.
The proposal would be placed before the Union Cabinet for its approval for the Rs 1,000 minimum monthly pension as the government would have to make fund provisions for the purpose.
The government would have to provide an additional amount of Rs 1,217 crore to ensure the minimum pension of Rs 1,000 starting 2014-15. Pensioners are, therefore, expected to get benefit with effect from April 1 this year. The proposal has already been approved by the Finance Ministry.
‘All Predictions are governed by the law of probability’. Based on this principle everybody started predict something about 50% DA Merger, Retirement Age and Interim relief. But none of which have materialized.
The print and e- media made the people believe that the central government had done lot of things including above for central government employees. But it was merely media hype. Apart from 7th pay commission approval government had done nothing for central government employees.
There is a saying “Never get too attached to someone, because attachments lead to expectations and expectations lead to disappointments”
But it is not true here in respect of central government employees. They are bound to expect something like 50% DA merger and interim relief from government, as the federations were assured by central government some of their demand would be considered. Based on this assurance they deferred their Strike call for which 85% of employees mandated.
So there is nothing wrong in their expectation from the central government for considering the demands of Merger of 50% DA and granting interim relief.
But central government made this saying true, “Expectations are setting one up for disappointment”
There have been reports in the Media that private hospitals on the panel of CGHS are denying credit facilities to the eligible CGHS beneficiaries for delay in settlement of hospitals bills. Lower package rates and inadmissible deductions etc. have also been reported to be the other reasons for withdrawal of agreed cashless /credit facilities.
In this regard, the CGHS beneficiaries are advised not to be guided by such misleading information. Delay in payments in the last quarter of the financial year due to budgetary constraints is not a new phenomenon and the hospitals are aware of it. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken special steps and the pendency is likely to be cleared within a week.
CGHS has already invited bids for revision of package rates through a transparent tender process. The last date for submission of bids is 10th March, 2014. Measures have also been taken to streamline the payment related issues in the ensuing empanelment process.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will ensure that the CGHS empanelled private hospitals continue to extend cashless /credit facilities to the eligible CGHS beneficiaries in compliance with the terms and conditions as laid down in the Memorandum of Agreement signed by them with CGHS. As per the information received by the Ministry, most of the private hospitals are continuing to extend the cashless facilities to the CGHS beneficiaries.