GDS Committee Recommendations and implementation
Reliably it is learnt that, the prepared Cabinet Note on GDS Committee Recommendations will be sent to Hon’ble Minister of Communications either on Monday (3.8.09) or Tuesday (4.8.09). After the approval of the MOC, the file will again go to Ministry of Finance and Dept. of Personnel for approval and then will be placed before the Cabinet. It may be delayed by one more month for issue of the orders.
Source NAPE Group-C
Source NAPE Group-C
Source NAPE Group-C
India Post set to get new tech addresses
Targeting improved postal services in India, the government has proposed setting up 12 automatic mail processing centres (AMPCs) in the country during the ongoing Five-Year Plan (2007-12 ). The AMPCs will have high speed sorting machines that will lead to quicker distribution of mails. “The government has planned to invest Rs 275 crore to set up 12 automatic mail processing centres all over the country,” said a government official on condition of anonymity. The AMPCs are likely to come up in Delhi and Kolkata by the end of March 2010, the official said. By the end of the Plan period, AMPCs will come up in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubansehwar, Hyderabad , Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Kochi, Patna and Vashi, giving a boost to the efficiency of postal services all over the country, he said. Recently, there were reports that India Post plans to invite consultants to help the loss-making institution acquire technology solutions , including software applications and computer hardware. The institutions also plans to spend around Rs2,300 crore on technology , according to the reports. Two AMPCs are already functional in Mumbai and Chennai, which were established in 1993 and 1996 respectively. “All the AMPCs will have highspeed sorting machines that can sort up to 30,000 letters in an hour,” the government official added. Under automatic mail processing, letters are sorted at a faster pace, leading to quicker distribution of mails. All the letters meant for automatic sorting must have a pin code and should be machinable. The steps being planned to develop automatic mail processing centres is a part of the initiative taken by the government to modernise and upgrade the operations of the postal services and give a new corporate image to India Post.
source-e times
Issue of Duplicate Service Book
Regarding maintenance and issue of Duplicate Service Book to the Govt.servant, the extracts of Rule 257 of GFR-2005 is produced below:
(1) Service Book : Detailed Rules for maintenance of Service Books are contained in SR 196 to 203. Service Books maintained in the establishment should be verified every year by the Head of Office who, after satisfying himself that the services of Government servants concerned are correctly recorded in each Service Book shall record the following certificate "Service verified from ……(the date record from which the verification is made)……….. upto ………(date)…………." .
(2) The service book of a government servant shall be maintained in duplicate. First copy shall be retained and maintained by the Head of the Office and the second copy should be given to the
government servant for safe custody as indicated below :-
(a) To the existing employees - within six months of the date on which these rules become effective.
(b) To new appointees - within one month of the date of appointment.
(3) : In January each year the Government servant shall handover his copy of the Service Book to his office for updation. The office shall update and return it to the Government Servant within thirty days of its receipt.
(4) In case the Government servants' copy is lost by the government servant, it shall be replaced on payment of a sum of Rs. 500/-.
Gold Buying "Spree" in India -
Wednesday 22nd July 2009 The world's hungriest gold market continues to demand physical metal...ENCOURAGED by brisk sales through its post offices, India's postal service is extending its Gold Coin offer to new outlets, reports Commodity Online from New Delhi.Indian gold buyers – the world's largest single market – have been visiting post offices across the country to Buy Gold in various weights of coins since the project began in 2008.Buoyed by the huge success of Gold Coin sales through its post offices, India Post is adding 15 more offices to step up its trade in the yellow metal this month.This Monday, says India Post, it started the service in Jharkhand, covering several post offices. Dozens of people came to the postal outlets to buy gold coins. "It is a new experience," says Sindhu Dinesh, a house-wife who bought a half-gram gold coin of 24-carat from the Bistupur General Post Office. "So far, we have been going to the post offices to collect letters, money orders and registered posts. Now it is nice that we can Buy Gold from post offices."Gold coins are an asset that can be kept for my daughter's marriage," she added. To step up gold coins sale in Jharkhand state, India Post has extended its 5% discount, begun in December. "Discounts on Gold Coins always help people to go on buying more than they thought. So we will step up more discount offers in the coming months," a post official said.India Post's deal with Reliance brings it 4% of the sale price, excluding tax. Typical fees on gold "investment jewelry" charged by dealers in rural India run to 10% or above. Gold Coins sold in Europe and North America are currently averaging 5-10% above the "spot" value of the metal they contain.The official said some 280 post offices across India are already selling Gold Coins. Several post offices are offering discounts as per the regional festivals."While Kerala state offers discounts during the Onam festival in August, northern Indian states offer discounts during Diwali, the festival of lights in October. There is certainly a gold buying spree in post offices," he added.India is the largest consumer of gold in the world. The approximate consumption of gold in India is around 700 tonnes per year. As per the currency scheme India Post-Reliance Money-WGC scheme, the postal department is selling 0.5 gm, 1 gm, 5 gm and 8 gm gold coins packed in tamper-proof sealed covers.
source-news paper
Post Offices come of age, to offer service
HYDERABAD: RK Narayan immortalised the integral role played by a postman, Thanappa, in the lives of people in the muchacclaimed short story, `The Missing Mail’, a part of his `Malgudi Days’. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore wrote Dak Ghar (The Post Office) which later was made into a film by the legendary Satyajit Ray. Nearer home, renowned Telugu poet and writer Deverakonda Balagangadhar Tilak wrote a touching poem on the postman and his selfless service to the people. Those days merged into history with the emergence of e-mail and sms which are fast replacing the postal system but not the human bondage. Perhaps, to be in tune with the ever-changing technology and the world of communication, the Department of Posts has embarked on value addition. In the coming days, the reason for visiting a post office need not be for posting a greeting card but to buy one. As part of the new portfolio of services offered by India Post, all stationery goods will be made available at the post offices. In about a month from now 235 post offices in Andhra Pradesh will also offer foreign exchange service. The places identified for introducing these services are Hyderabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar, Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam. Making ticket-booking a hasslefree experience for travellers, 400 post offices in the State will also offer railway, flight and bus reservation facility, says Chief Postmaster-General KV Sundar Rajan. Officials say 1,000 post offices in India will be revamped to be made models. As a pilot project in Hyderabad, the delivery of Speed Post will also be done during evening. ``We want to make the post office a one-stop shop. Shortly, 71 post offices in the State will sell gold coins. Now, 21 post offices are selling gold,’’ General Manager (Business Development) John Samuel says. In another initiative, a new e-Post service will be introduced in this financial year. Interested people can open an account for e-Post under which a soft copy delivered to the post office will be mailed to the addressee as a hard copy. ``As India Post lagged in parcel delivery service, we are going to establish parcel post hubs at Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam and Vijayawada,’’ reveals Samuel. According to postal officials, 96 per cent of the daily wages paid under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are paid through post offices. To make the delivery system of wages more efficient, Biometric Identification System (BIS), which was successfully implemented as a pilot project in Nizamabad, will be introduced in other parts of the State. Under BIS, the thumb impression of the worker will be taken and cross-checked with the impression recorded in the database. The wages will be paid only if the thumb impressions match. This procedure will ensure delivery of money to the right person. It’s not all. A person will get an SMS on his mobile if a post is to be delivered to him. ``It was implemented in Kurnool, Kadapa and Chittoor. A graphic message will inform the person that a post in his name has come and awaits delivery. Either the person can visit the post office to collect it personally or wait for the postman to deliver it at the house,’’ says Sundar Rajan.
Grand plan
* Train, flight, bus reservation
* Stationery & greeting cards
* Gold coins
* e-Post
* Parcel hubs
* SMS alerts
* NREGS payments by BIS
source-news papers
Govt. plans modernization/up gradation of 500 Post Offices
NEW DELHI: The government plans to upgrade and modernise 500 post offices across the country with an investment of Rs 65 crore, said a senior official in the ministry. “Project Arrow is now being extended to 500 more post offices, under phase-III to upgrade and modernise these post offices,” said minister of state for communications and information technology Sachin Pilot on Tuesday. Project Arrow was launched by the department of post last year, as part of efforts to provide world-class service to customers. In phase-I of the flagship programme, the postal department identified 50 post offices for upgradation on a pilot basis with an investment of Rs 12.85 crore. In the second phase, upgradation of 450 post offices has already been completed and third phase is expected to be completed by end-August this year. While reviewing the progress of the implementation of the Project Arrow in post offices of Delhi and NCR, the minister said: “The objective of the project is to make a visible, tangible, and a note worthy difference in the services of the post offices that matters to the common man.” Nearly 89% of the network of India Post is in the rural areas and therefore improving the condition and upgrading infrastructure of the post offices in those areas will be the prime concern for the department of post. The project aims to create post offices a vibrant organisation with all the IT-enabled services, better infrastructure and improve the quality of services provided by the post offices like mail delivery and postal saving schemes.
Source-economic times
Swiss Post says bye to 50 g monopoly
Swiss Post will lose its monopoly on letters over 50 grammes from July 2009. The lowering of the monopoly threshold on letters from 100 g to 50 g was approved by the Swiss government. It believes this further step to liberalize the market is justified by developments in the EU. One quarter of the entire letter market will now be open to competition. The sector is due to be fully liberalized by 2012. Private operators gave the measure a lukewarm reception, saying that the national operator‘s remaining monopoly on letters under 50 g would give it an unfair competitive advantage.
Source: Agence télégraphique Suisse
UK postal workers protest failed management of change
Thousands of postal workers across the UK will be striking and demonstrating on Friday 17 July against continuing cuts and executive action by Royal Mail Thousands of postal workers across the UK will be striking and demonstrating on Friday 17 July against continuing cuts and executive action by Royal Mail, the Communication Workers Union has announced.Strike action will take place in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Darlington, Stoke, Plymouth, Leamington Spa, Norfolk and Essex . Other offices across the UK will be protesting in other ways, including holding gate meetings and releasing balloons. In the afternoon a letter and postcard will be delivered to Royal Mail's chief executive Adam Crozier, along with business secretary Lord Mandelson. Once these have arrived safely at their addresses a national balloon release will take place with thousands of balloons rising above Royal Mail workplaces across the UK. Dave Ward, CWU deputy general secretary, said: "There are serious and growing problems in the postal sector which urgently need resolving. We have renewed our offer of a three month no-strike deal to Royal Mail in return for meaningful talks over modernisation. "The current cuts, bullying managers and ever increasing workloads on a shrinking workforce cannot continue. Pressure and stress is at breaking point for postal workers so we urgently need a fresh start for a modern Royal Mail. "Royal Mail has abandoned the final phase of the 2007 Pay and Modernisation agreement which mandated the company and CWU to negotiating modernisation. There's been no negotiation over bringing in machinery, redesigning deliveries or improving industrial relations. These problems will not go away unless Royal Mail addresses them through talks. "The national day of action on Friday is in response to an ever growing number of requests for industrial action from postal workers across the country who feel let down by Royal Mail management. We have almost 400 ballot requests at the moment with more coming daily. Without progress this could effectively turn into a national strike." '
source-net
UNAIDS, Universal Postal Union, UNI Global Union and ILO
launch global HIV prevention campaign
In an initial roll out, the campaign is being launched in some 16,000 post offices in sevenpioneering countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Estonia, Mali and Nigeria. The campaign materials provide both visitors and employees with important information about
how to prevent HIV through a series of eye-catching posters and hand-outs. The materials also give the address of a multi-language website on HIV prevention, hosted by UNAIDS, which provides detailed information about how to prevent infection. “With more than 7,400 new infections occurring every day it is clear that HIV prevention efforts need to be stepped up urgently,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “The postal network has an extremely wide outreach; it is open to everyone from the young to the old and is an excellent and innovative way to raise awareness about how to prevent HIV”. Over the next three years, the campaign will be expanded globally, potentially making its way into 600,000 post offices worldwide. This would mean that millions of people who use postal services every day as well as the 5.5 million postal employees would receive important information about how to prevent HIV transmission. UPU Director General Edouard Dayan said, “With 600,000 post offices around the world, the postal network is a natural partner for this HIV-prevention awareness campaign. It is the single largest health-awareness initiative ever launched globally by the postal sector, demonstrating the huge outreach and value of the universal services it provides.” He added that, “The campaign is a strong example of what one industry can do to help achieve the important Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015.”
Among the pioneer countries, the Cameroonian postal operator is hoping that running the campaign through its 250 outlets will make an impact on the country’s HIV prevalence rates, which according to the latest data is at around 5% of people aged between 15 and 49. “Raising awareness on HIV is crucial,” said Abraham Sizimboue, Campost’s Acting Director General. “HIV touches the lives of a very large part of our population so we are very pleased to be running such an important campaign in our post offices here.” It is the first time that the postal system in Cameroon has participated in a health campaign. Assane Diop, Executive Director of the International Labour Organisation’s Social Protection Sector, said: “The campaign promotes the development of a workplace policy for postal workers everywhere, as well as creatively using the opportunities of the postal network and its structures in each country to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and counter stigma and discrimination. The ILO works actively with its partners to promote a fair globalization. This includes ensuring that responses to the economic crisis are informed by the ILO’s goals of decent work based on social justice and take an integrated approach that includes factoring in the implications of HIV/AIDS.”
Together with the campaign partners, the ILO will prepare a toolkit to guide the development of workplace policies and the implementation of programmes on HIV prevention, care and support for workers and managers. UNI Global Union’s General Secretary Philip J. Jennings said, "Postal Workers and their families are also touched by HIV and AIDS. Healthy employees contribute to the decent living of their families as well as the good functioning of the company and the postal network as a whole. Furthermore, postal workers contribute fundamentally to the universal service, which represents an important mean to outreach to communities and support them. This joint campaign and the toolkit prepared by UNI post & Logistics Global Union and the ILO is also an opportunity to have employees and employers discuss and prevent HIV as well dialogue on broader issues such as health and safety. "
The campaign will culminate in 2011, with the UPU encouraging its member countries to issue postage stamps that year to commemorate the discovery of AIDS thirty years earlier. It was in 1981 that the disease was first discovered.
UTN not mandatory for filing Income Tax Returns
for the Financial Year 2008-09(Assessment Year 2009-10)
The Central Board of Direct Taxes have further decided that the Notification No. 31 of 2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending or substituting Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 shall be kept in abeyance for the time being. Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the said Notification. The filing of such returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Further, the date from which the Notification No. 31 / 2009 shall become applicable on tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) and deposited during the current financial year shall be notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes subsequently. All deductors / collectors of TDS / TCS may continue to deposit their TDS / TCS and file their quarterly TDS / TCS returns as per procedure existing prior to issuance of Notification No.31 / 2009 dated 25.3.2009. BSC/BY/GN-154/09
REVISED GUIDELINES FOR RECOGNITION OF PRIVATE HOSPITALS UNDER CS(MA) RULES FOR CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS.
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