Monday, June 30, 2014
EDITORIAL - POSTAL CRUSADER - JULY 2014
NAKED NEPOTISM AND ARBITRARY DISCRIMINATION
In an unprecedented move, the Government of India, Ministry of Communications & IT, Department of Posts, has issued orders on 24.06.2014, granting trade union facilities to the Bhartiya Postal Employees Federation (BPEF) and all its affiliated Unions. Even though in the order it is mentioned as limited trade union facilities, in effect almost all the facilities granted to recognized Federations / Unions is extended to BPEF also, including channel of communications, meeting with senior officers and office accommodation subject to availability.
We vehemently oppose the above decision of the Government, not because trade union facilities are granted to BPEF, but because of the way in which it is granted, flouting all the existing rules. Government of India has issued the New Recognition Rules (NRR) in the year 1993 viz., the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993 and it clearly stipulates certain conditions for grant of recognition and trade union facilities to Federations and Unions. As per the CCS (RSA) Rules - 1993, membership verification shall be conducted under check-off system once in five years. Those unions getting minimum 35% will be recognized as the first Union and those getting minimum 15% membership will be granted recognition as second union. Accordingly last membership verification was conducted in the Postal Department in the year 2010 and those NFPE Unions got 35% and FNPO Unions got 15% are granted recognition and trade union facilities.
Most of the BPEF Unions except one Union in Postal Accounts got less than 5% membership only and hence they were not granted recognition and trade union facilities. Now in blatant violation of the provisions of NRR and also circumventing the rules for recognition, Government of India has issued an executive fiat granting trade union facilities to BPEF and all its affiliated Unions. Thus, those who are the custodians of the law themselves have violated it. This is nothing but naked nepotism and hence we protest and oppose the order.
Secondly, it is a case of arbitrary discrimination. FNPO affiliated Unions which failed to secure 15% membership in the last verification are not granted any trade union facilities so far. Similarly, the request for grant of recognition and trade union facilities to the newly formed Gramin Dak Sewaks Union of NFPE [AIPEU GDS(NFPE)is still pending before the Government, even though it commands support of more than 60% membership of Gramin Dak Sevaks. How can the Government single out BPEF Unions alone for trade union facilities? Why such facilities are denied to similarly placed Unions? Where is the provision for such arbitrary discrimination? It reminds us the famous writings of George Orwell – “Allanimals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
Thirdly, when the Writ Petition of BPEF Unions for grant of recognition and trade union facilities as well as challenging the provision of CCS RSA Rules, 1993 was rejected by the Honourable Madras High Court in the year 2010, and consequently the Government of India, the Department of Posts had completed the membership verification under the CCS RSA Rules, 1993 and granted recognition to the eligible Federations and Unions, how the Executive can ignore the judicial pronouncement and grant trade union facilities to BPEF Federation and Unions?
NFPE vehemently oppose this arbitrary orders issued by the Government, which smacks of nepotism and discrimination. We demand the Government to review the orders and ensure justice and fair play.
(M. Krishnan)
Secretary General
NFPE
FINACLE CBS push us in DEBACLE ; NFPE writes to DIRECTORATE for RESCUE
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES
1st Floor, North Avenue Post office Building, New Delhi - 110001
Ref: PF/NFPE/CBS Dated – 27.06.2014
To
Ms Kaveri Banerjee
Secretary
Department of Posts
Dak Bhawan, New Delhi – 110001
Madam,
Sub: - Incalculable miseries and untold suffering to the operative staff in CBS rolled out offices – Immediate remedial and rescue operations sought for – reg.
At the outset, we appreciate the efforts leads to technological advancements and extend our fullest cooperation in the journey to reach the desired goals of implementing innovative customer centric services and operational efficiency enhancement by inducting state of art technology.
But to our dismay, the CBS migrated offices are now facing incalculable miseries and untold sufferings due to lack of adequate network capabilities and software support of the vendors. The following are the issues to be set right in war foot manner at the initial stage itself otherwise leads to garboil and distress among the stake holders especially among the working staff.
1) Insufficient bandwidth Network:
Providing of strong and stable network is base of successful implementation of India Post project. Now almost all HOs have been given 2 MBPS bandwidth line, LSG SOs 512 KBPS line and B and C class offices have been given 256 KBPS line. If ‘India Post Project-2012’ is fully implemented, all the work of Post Offices will depend on these network. Present bandwidth speed is very less and due to low bandwidth, Finacle page is either not opening and some time opening very slowly. Due to this PO staff are forced to work up to night 10 pm many days. In many occasions in every CBS migrated office, the ‘Login’ is inconsistent and for each transaction “Login” is forced.
If CSI and PLI are migrated and placed on this network the situation may further worsen. Hence we request to provide at least 4 MB bandwidth line to HOs, 2 MB bandwidth line to LSG SOs and 1 MB bandwidth line to B and C class offices.
2) Failure of Sify:
In India Post Project 2012, NI Vender is Sify. On observation of quality and quantity of service being provided by them it is very much proved that M/S Sify is incapable to give service to this big department. They do not have sufficient skilled manpower and it seems that they are not intending to give good quality service also. At initial stage itself they have not made proper survey of all offices. Before installing and commissioning they were very keen on taking installation report from concerned Postmasters/Sub Postmasters.
It is told that, as per MOU, all offices should be provided with NSP-1 and NSP-2 lines. In almost all offices, NSP-1 is BSNL line and NSP-2 is either Sify line or Airtel datacard. It is observed that in many offices they have installed Airtel datacard ,where as Airtel signal is not available at that place.
It is also observed that M/S Sify is not recharging Airtel datacard installed. Instead they are recharging on receipt of complaint from concerned offices. By doing this they are deviating from MOU and leaving the staff in the field in distress.
3) Finacle Problem:
If we come to Finacle part, it is another tragedy. Initially it was boosted that Finacle is fully foolproof software and successfully implemented in many banks. We could not understand why Infosys is not utilizing experience gained in banks and implementing here. There are so many bugs in the software and more surprisingly even after lapse of 6 months of implementation, nothing is changed. All the issues raised at the time of January-2014 is still not resolved. Moreover Finacle server becomes inaccessible many time in peak business hours or responds very slow. It is a naked truth that we are losing clientle and distancing from the customers only due to faulty service of vendors.
4) Lack of Guidance:
No separate rulings are received to suit Finacle Environment. No authorities are giving authoritative guidance on many issues.
For example
§ Role of SOSB in HO after implementation of Finacle at SOs,
§ Role of SBCO at HO
§ Fate of manual records on transfer accounts from one Finacle office to other etc.
5) Supply of Printers and Computers:
At initial stage new Computers and printers are supplied to pilot offices. Rest of the offices are having more than 5 year old Computers and Printers which are not suitable to present scenario. Administration is pressing hard to migrate offices without supplying required hardware. The old computers and peripherals either to be revamped or replaced to make it compatiable to the present environment.
6) Problem of User credentials:
One each User credential is given to trained staff. But it is not clearly told what action to be taken while SPM/PA goes on leave especially in B class offices. As sharing of user credential is very risky and dangerous, alternative arrangement should be made immediately.
7) Due to slow network and frequent failure of server customers of the department are frustrated and moving out the department and needed immediate attention.
8. You may aware that we are struggling with outdated Computers and peripherals, which were purchased during the year 2000 to 2005 and immediate supply of needy new hardware to ensure the technological transformation in and effective manner.
9. Even proper up gradation of CPU is not made in many areas and the Software loaded is upto Windows XP in most of the offices. Presently it is a fact that windows XP is not supported by the Microsoft with updates.
10. Finacle can be better loaded with Windows 7 and hence the officers at ground level are pressurized to use pirated version of Windows 7, which may lead to litigation with Microsoft apart from non supporting with updates.
11. The MOU made with M/s Sify, for net work integration is limiting to low bandwidth such as 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps in many areas, serving with 1 server and 4 to 5 nodes, resulting in sluggish connectivity and takes hours together to transform the data. This results in hang over and the transactions could not be able to be made at the instant, as the Department expects, It requires atleast 2 to 4 Mbps and M/s Sify refused to increase the bandwidth now.
12. Further in the Data Centre, it requires to the level of 400 Mbps on the Network to receive the Data transmitted at a time from all the 680 offices but Sify is learnt to be provided with a minimum of 200 Mbps capacity. This affects the receipt of data from the end users at a time and take hours to complete the process. Further expansion is required when there is further migration.
13. The area of occupation in the main server at Mumbai maintained by M/S Reliance Ltd. is also not sufficient, which results in sluggish transmission of data from the entire 680 offices at present, at a time and even the validation cannot be made before 8:00 PM or 10:00 PM on all the days.
14. End of day process cannot be made even on daily basis and the staff have to wait for the nod from the Infosys even after midnights on several days and at times it can be made on the next day morning. Even the women employees are compelled to complete the EOD process in midnights and their husbands or wards waiting till midnights to take them to home.
15. Even the Help desk provided is not answering and the end users are taken to task and receiving brick bats from the irate public.
16. This results in closing of accounts in large numbers that too, can be made not on the date of presentation but after few days and our Department looses large chunk of customers, because of the miscalculations, wrong estimations and over ambitious activities and inadequate technological support.
17. Even the first and prestigious ATM of our Department unveiled by the ex Finance Minister Sri. P. Chidambaram at T. Nagar HO is not functioning from the date of installation and only 10 ATM cards are supplied on the first instant, that too only to the staff and some friendly users of T. Nagar HPO. But the ATM is provided with 24x7 A/C and a paid Guard, making huge loss to the Department and receiving severe criticism from the Print media.
18. The women employees should be relieved from this area of operation, till the situation improves, in order to avoid late night stays at offices inviting gender problems and unsafe returns to their home at midnights.
19. Further, adequate hardware and infrastructure should be given immediately to the CBS migrated offices with sufficient man power and proper remuneration for the extended hours, the staffs re serving.
20. In spite of all above cited problems the Postal staff is being worked on finacle software as matter of challenge and trying to give best services to the customers. In spite of all efforts the customers are not satisfying/delighting which hampers the reputation of the department. No PO which is upgraded with finacle are being closed before 8 PM every day. We are ready to work hard provided, solution for above problems are to be solved.
It is requested to sort out all the issues arising out of the CBS Migration and all the vendors need to be instructed to provide all the technological support as required by the field staff. As this is the pilot and sorting stage, if we failed to pull up the vendors to the level of expectation and necessity, later full implementation, restoration may be difficult with this vendor support.
It is further requested to spare some time and provide opportunity to present and brief our case in person for the welfare of our department staff and the clientle. Your immediate intervention as if house on fire is requested.
A line in reply is highly appreciated.
With profound regards,
Yours faithfully,
(M. Krishnan)
Secretary General
Friday, June 20, 2014
EDITORIAL - BHARTIYA POST - JULY 2014
PENDING DEMANDS AND NEW GOVERNMENT
New Central Government under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi has taken charge with a clear majority in the Lok Sabha election. People of the country and the Central Government employees who suffered a lot under the UPA Government, have voted for a change. Now it is the turn of NDA Government. Coming days will prove whether the selection made by the voters is correct or not.
Central Government employees have to take a cautious approach towards the new Government. As the new Government has just taken over charge and expectations are very high, jumping into any sudden conclusion may not be correct on our part. We have to give reasonable time to the new government to make its stand clear on the issues agitating the minds of the Central Government employees. Let us hope that our past experience in the 2000 December 14 days Postal strike when the NDA Government was in power, the support extended by the party leading NDA to the UPA Government for introducing and passing the PFRDA Bill in Parliament, the infamous downsizing order of 2001 issued by the NDA Government which paved way for abolition of thousands of vacant posts in Central Government Departments and refusal to concede any of the main demands of Gramin Dak Sevaks will not be repeated by the new Government.
The maiden budget of the new Government to be presented in Parliament in July 2014 may give us an idea on the thinking of the Government and also the attitude of the Government towards the problems faced by the common people and the Central Government employees. Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers has placed our demands before the new Government. JCM National Council staff side has also written to the Finance Minister and Cabinet Secretary. Our demands are not new. Demands raised before the UPA Government are again placed before the NDA Government.
While constituting 7th Central Pay Commission the UPA Government has refused to include the main demands of the Central Government employees in the terms of reference viz: (1) Grant of merger of DA (2) Grant of interim relief and (3) inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks under the purview of 7th CPC. Confederation has conducted 48 hours strike in February 2014, just before the General Election is declared, demanding settlement of the 15 points charter of demands which includes the above three main demands also. As General Election was declared we could not move further. Central Government employees expect that the new Government will consider positively, the demands raised in the 48 hours strike.
If the new Government also take the same stand as that of previous UPA Government and refuse to concede our genuine demands, the Central Government employees will be forced to tread the path of struggle again. Before embarking upon such a struggle, our prime duty is to build up largest unity among all sections of the Central Government employees. Confederation is making all out effort in this direction especially to build up total unity among JCM staff side organisations. We are even ready to make certain compromises for the sake of unity.
We have to give enough time to the new Government and we are ready to wait. But we cannot wait indefinitely. 7th CPC has already commenced its work and has fixed target dates for submission of memorandums by Federations and Unions/Associations. Chairman, 7th CPC, has also made it clear that unless the Government refer the issues of DA merger, Interim relief and GDS issues to the Commission, it will not consider these issues. Hence the ball is now in the Government’s court. Let us see how the things move. Let us also be ready to face any situation.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Branch Postmaster’s (GDS BPM) son cleared Civil Service (Main) Examination 2013 (UPSC)
AIPEU, Group-C, Keonjhar congratulates the candidate and wish best of luck to his future career
Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on 12 June 2014 declared final result of Civil Service (Main) Examination 2013. A total of 1122 candidates have been recommended for appointment to Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, and Central Services, Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’
Shri. GURAV ABHIJIT DILIP s/o Shri Dilip Gurav Branch Postmaster Gopalpur B.O. (Pune Region Maharashtra Circle) has declared successful in the said examination. He appeared under Roll No. 053189 and secured 672 Rank.
His Brother Shri Gajanan Dilip Gurav also working in DOP as Divisional System Administrator in Pandharpur Division Pandharpur (Pune Region)
Courtesy: SAPOST
WARM FAREWELL TO SRI HARIHAR NAYAK, POSTMASTER
Postal Recreation Club, Keonjhargarh has bid warm farewell to Sri Harihar Nayak, Postmaster, Keonjhargarh HO on his transfer to Dhenkanal Division as Postmaster, Dhenkanal HO. on 07.06.2014.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Longer working hours for bureaucrats likely
NEW DELHI: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting a hectic pace for his ministers, babudom is abuzz with talk of a possible review of working hours for central government offices as well.
Though department of personnel and training (DoPT) officials on Wednesday said no formal proposal for longer working hours or a return to six-day week had been moved, they felt that given that most ministers were keeping longer hours and also working on Saturdays, senior bureaucrats and other staff may be asked to put in longer hours to assist them.
A DoPT official said debate about the desirability of restructuring the working hours may start if the political leadership so desires.
Political sources, however, said no proposal to extend either working hours or switch to a six-day week has even been mooted so far. It was former PM Rajiv Gandhi who started the five-day week. However, bureaucrats have been making frantic calls to their contacts in DoPT to confirm if reports of a possible corporatization of government departments, complete with longer working hours, were indeed true.
Interestingly, Gujarat government office timings stretch from 10.30 am to 6.10 pm, with the second and fourth Saturdays being off, along with Sundays.
With Modi having given clear directions to his ministers to show results that will set apart the NDA government from the "lacklustre and non-performing" UPA regime, the ministers are already clocking longer hours, setting a time-bound agenda for delivery.
This has made it imperative for secretaries, joint secretaries and their staff to remain in office to assist the minister. Central government offices at present have 40 working hours per week, with Saturday and Sunday being off days.
Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Courtesy : The Sambad
Monday, June 9, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
INTERACTION WITH 7th CPC
NFPE LEADERS MET CHAIRMAN 7th CPC
A delegation of NFPE headed by Secretary General Com.Krishnan along with the General Secretaries of all wings appeared in the Office of the Pay Commission at the call of the Chairman, in Janpath Hotel, New Delhi at 10.30am on 29-05-2014 and met the 7th CPC Chairman, Honourable Justice Mr.A.K.Mathur and his Members in full quorum. The interactive session / meeting lasted for one and half hours.
Various points regarding the revision of wqges and service conditions of Postal ;employees and functioning of the Department of Posts were discussed which are summarized as follows :
1) Role and Functioning of the Department of Posts towards the people of India.
2) Various staffing pattern of our Department and huge reduction of Staff strength due to unjustified abolition of posts.
3) GDS who run 1,29,000 Post Offices – a factual account and their sufferings. NFPE urges for bringning the GDS within the ambit of 7th CPC.
4) Duties and responsibilities of various cadres of staff of the Department of Posts including Postal Assisatants, Sorting Assistants, PA(CO), PA(SBCO), Postal Accounts Staff, Postmen, Mail Guard, MTS and Civilwing Staff.
5) Justification for upgradation of their pay scales.
6) Improvement in the promotional avenues of postal staff of different categories with a special emphasis on the Grade Pay for MTS, Gr.C employees (Rs.1800/- to 1900/- & Rs.1900/- to 2,000/- i.e., only a paltry amount of Rs.100/- in every 10 years)
7) Postman duty and their poor promotional avenues.
8) Specialities of the Assistants and Supervisors and their poor promotional avenues and many other issues.
The concept of Pay Band and Grade Pay, whether beneficial and the principle of determination of minimum pay was also discussed.
Regarding merger of DA and Interim Relief , the Chairman made it clear that unless the Govt. asks the Pay Commission specifically, to submit interim report, Pay Commission will not submit any recommendations on DA merger & IR.
(M.KRISHNAN)
GENERAL SECRETARY
Greetings to Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology and Law & Justice
श्री रवि शंकर प्रसाद 27 मई, 2014 को नई दिल्ली में केन्द्रीय संचार और सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी मंत्री के रूप में कार्यभार संभालते हुए ।
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad taking charge as the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, in New Delhi on May 27, 2014.
ALL INDIA WORKSHOP & SEMINAR ON 7TH CPC - P3 RELATED ISSUES A GRAND SUCCESS
An All India workshop and Seminar on 7th Central Pay Commission Memorandum P3 related issues was organised on 26th & 27th May 2014 at Shah Auditorium, Delhi, by the AIPEU Group ‘C’ (CHQ). It was a grand success and served its purpose. About 277 delegates mainly Branch/Divisional/Circle Secretaries from all Circles (except Punjab) and CWC members attended the camp. The draft Memorandum prepared by the AIPEU Group ‘C’ (CHQ) with the help and guidance of Com. K. V. Sridharan, Ex-General Secretary was supplied to all delegates. About 45 delegates actively participated in the deliberation and many more gave suggestions in writing.
The all India convention and workshop was inaugurated by Com. K. K. N. Kutty, National President, Confederation of Central Government Employees & Workers and also JCM National Council, Standing Committee Member. Com. Kutty explained in detail, the stand taken by Confederation & JCM Staff Side regarding the common demands of the Central Government Employees. Com. S. K. Vyasji, Veteran Leader of Central Government employees and Advisor of Confederation, who is also an authority on Pay Commission related matters, explained the stand of the Staff side on Pension related matters.
Com. Giriraj Singh, President, NFPE & General Secretary R-3, Com. Vrigu Bhattacharjee, Secretary General, Civil Accounts Employees Federation, Com. R. Seethalakshmi, General Secretary, P4, Com. P. Suresh, General Secretary R-4, Com. Virender Tiwari, General Secretary SBCOEA, Com. P. Panduranga Rao, General Secretary, AIPEU GDS (NFPE), Com. B. G. Tamhankar, Ex-President, NFPE & P3, Com. R. N. Parashar, Asst. Secretary General, NFPE, Com. Raghupathy, Asst. Secretary General, NFPE and CHQ office Bearers of P3 and Circle Secretaries attended the workshop and gave their valuable suggestions.
Key Note address in the Seminar on the subject – “7th CPC Memorandum-P3 related issues” was delivered by Chief Guest Shri. Alok Saxena, DDG (PMU) and Secretary to Postal Services Board, having vast experience of working in DoP&T and as Director in 6th CPC and also as Director, Implementation in Ministry of Finance. In his highly appreciated speech he narrated the principles of pay fixation and also various factors relating to Pay Commission. He made it clear that the PA cadre and its promotional cadres and allied cadres deserve a higher pay scale and endorsed the demands raised by P3 CHQ in the draft Memorandum as reasonable and justified.
Com. M. Krishnan, General Secretary, AIPEU Group ‘C’ (CHQ) & Secretary General, NFPE & Confederation presented the draft memorandum by reading each chapter, followed by discussion. He replied all the points raised in the deliberations by the delegates.
Concluding Com. K. V. Sridharan, Ex-General Secretary, in his speech enlightened the delegates on certain important points included in the draft Memorandum.
Com. R. Sivannarayana, President, CHQ presided over the Workshop and Seminar. Com. Balwinder Singh, Financial Secretary, P3 CHQ, presented the credentials and also stressed the need for prompt remittance of quota and other dues to CHQ. Com. N. Subramanian, Deputy General Secretary, P3 CHQ delivered vote of thanks.
The two days camp came to a successful conclusion at 6 PM on 27.05.2014.
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