Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Central Trade Unions' Protest Day :: 02-08-2019

IMA HQ New Delhi


The Lok Sabha approved and passed the draconian NMC Bill yesterday. The democratic Lower House dumped healthcare & medical education of this country into darkness by approving undemocratic National Medical Commission Bill 2019.

IMA HQ calls for 24 hours withdrawal of services on Wednesday 31 08 2019.

Section 32 of the NMC Bill provides for licensing of 3. 5 lakhs unqualified non medical persons to practice modern medicine. The term Community Health Provider has been vaguely defined to allow anyone connected with modern medicine to get registered in NMC and be licensed to practice modern medicine. This would mean that all paramedics including pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, optometrists and others are becoming eligible to practice modern medicine and prescribe independently. This law legalizes quackery. 

This provision and the earlier objected provisions can never be accepted by the medical fraternity of the country.

The mess created by the Bill regarding the examinations affecting the career generations of medical students cannot be condoned. The numerous other inconsistencies in the Bill will seriously affect the Health of the nation.

IMA rejects NMC Bill 2019 in toto.

The emergency Action Committee reviewed the situation yesterday night. It has been decided to call for 24 hours withdrawal of non essential services across the nation by modern medicine doctors from 6 am on Wednesday, 31.07.2019 till 6 am the next day i.e., Thursday,  01.08.2019.

Emergency, Casualty, ICU and related services will function normally. 

Public demonstrations and hunger strikes will be organized by all the state and local branches. 

All the members of the modern medical fraternity are requested to participate. All the medical students are requested to boycott classes and proclaim solidarity. 

The war against NMC will continue.

The struggle to redeem the Health of the nation is our privilege and sacred duty. We will never allow licensing unqualified non medical persons to kill our patients. We will never allow our mothers and children die in thousands for ever due to this Black Law. 

IMA baptized in the freedom struggle of the nation rises to protect our patients and the Health of the nation. 

Jai Hind.                                       --                                Jai IMA.

Dr. Santanu Sen 
National President 

Dr. Rajan sharma 
National President elect 


Dr. R. V. Asokan 
Hony Secretary General 

Dr. A. Marthanda Pillai 
Chairman,  Action Committee






It was a day of amusement at the Bengaluru Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal. As the DG of CPWD Prabhakar Singh had not apologized for contempt of Court, it decided to send him to jail..........


CPWD DG Prabhakar Singh apologizes to court after Judge orders jail term; Singh files Writ against Judge

NATIONAL HERALD (E-PAPER) 29 Jul 2019, 10:30 PM

It was a day of amusement at the Bengaluru bench of Central Administrative Tribunal on Friday, July 27. The Tribunal was hearing a contempt petition against Central Public Works Department (CPWD) director general Prabhakar Singh as he had gone ahead and issued large scale transfer and posting orders of engineers as a part of the restructuring of CPWD despite the Tribunal having put a stay on it on June 4, 2019.


In court, before pronouncing the order, the two member bench of Judge KB Suresh and CV Shankar enquired about Singh’s health, to which the DG responded that he only had the usual blood pressure and diabetes problems. Persisting with the same line of questions, the Court wanted to know if Singh had any special health conditions and DG responded in the negative.

Then the Judge went on to pronounce the verdict which included a one-month simple imprisonment for ignoring the stay order of the Court and not appearing before CAT earlier, despite being ordered to. On hearing the verdict, a fluttered Singh collapsed unable to believe the sentence given.

On seeing the DG collapse, the lawyer requested the Judges to be lenient with the DG. The judge said he was forced to pass such an order because the DG was refusing to apologize to the court despite there being a contempt case against him and because he continued to pass several orders even after June 4, 2019. The Bench said if he didn’t apologize, the court would call the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra on July 30.

On hearing this, the Lawyer persuaded the DG Prabhakar Singh to give a written apology. Remaining adamant, Singh said that he had passed the orders at the behest of the Minister. On further pleas from the lawyer and after consultations with Secretary Mishra, Singh tendered an undertaking expressing his regret and that he would cancel all the impugned orders.

On receiving an unconditional apology from Singh, the Court accepted his apology and closed the matter.

And now, Singh has filed a Writ Petition in Karnataka High Court stating that he was threatened and hence he apologized. HE has even made the Judge a party in his petition.

The CPWD Engineers Association had challenged the restructuring of CPWD, which Singh had ordered in March and the Association alleged that it has not following the procedures suggested by the consultancy Ernst & Young.

This wasn’t the first time a Court had observed that Singh had tried to overreach orders passed by a Court. In a ruling in the Delhi High Court on July 8, 2019, the Judges stated that they were of the view that “the petitioners (Prabhakar Singh and Durga Shankar Mishra) have made every attempt to overreach the orders of the Court so as to ensure the respondent (an executive engineer in the electrical department) doesn’t reap the fruits of the judgement in his favour”.

Orders passed by CPWD after CAT stay

In an order on June 11, 2019, the DG stated that eight executive engineers of the electrical division who have jurisdiction within Delhi Circle have to hand over their charges to the newly posted electrical engineers.

Ignoring the stay orders related to transfers and promotions of engineers passed by CAT, Prabhakar Singh had promoted 10 Assistant Directors to the grade of Deputy Directors on June 21, 2019.

In fact, Singh had even stated that the ministry was not deterred by the stay in Court against the re-structuring and would go ahead with their plans.

Reiterating former transfer orders, the office of the DG sent out a memo on July 9, 2019, castigating all the officers who despite being served transfer orders haven’t reported to their new place of posting. He asked them to comply with the orders even though the Tribunal had stayed the orders and threatened them with disciplinary action.

According to sources, Singh is working out how to cancel the orders passed by the Ministry and the Minister.



Extension of Prabhakar Singh’s tenure

The term of Prabhakar Singh has been extended by another six months and his term will end by January 31, 2020, unless the government decides to extend it again.

This is the second extension being given to Singh despite several corruption cases pending against him,

The government modified the hiring guidelines in June 2018 to promote SDG (Elect) Prabhakar Singh as the DG. He was set to retire on July 31, 2018, exactly a month after his promotion, but the government again violated the DoPT norms and statutory rules such as the FR-56 and re-employed him for one more year even though there were several other eligible officers who could be promoted as the DG.

FR-56 is the retirement procedure of the government and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is the Central Government’s coordinating agency for recruitment.

//copy//

Courtesy: NATIONAL HERALD




Monday, July 29, 2019


CITU - Letter to AIDEF on Privatization in Defence Sector


CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION - ORDER



CLICK HERE    FOR COPY OF THE JUDGEMENT ( 7 PAGES)




O.A No.1154 of 2016 :: JUDGEMENT



CLICK HERE  FOR COPY OF JUDGEMENT (29 PAGES)

AIRF :: Closure of Railway Printing Presses ...... Letter to Hon'ble Minister for Railways


No.AIRF/174                                                                                                                  Dated: July 26, 2019

Hon’ble Minister for Railways,
Ministry of Railways, Rail Bhawan,
New Delhi
Respected Sir,
Sub.: Closure of Railway Printing Presses – Regarding

Ref.: Railway Board’s letter No.2018/RS/Ptg. & Sty./AP/PP/IR dated 04.06.2019

The issue of closure of Railway Printing Presses, being burning one, has been repeatedly deliberated by AIRF at various levels during the last two years. After detailed discussions, including deliberations held in the PNM Meeting of AIRF with the Railway Board on our captioned agenda item(item No.35/2018), it was assured that the following five Railway Printing Presses would not only continue to function, but also be modernized by providing latest printing machinery and plant.
(i) Byculla(CR), (ii) Howrah(ER), (iii) Shakurbasti(NR), (iv) Royapuram(Chennai) and (v) Secunderabad(SCR)

It was also advised to this federation that the workload of those printing presses, other than the above-mentioned five, which are to be closed, would also be transferred to these printing presses. It may also be noted that, Ministry of Railways has spent substantial money with a view to modernize the aforesaid five printing presses as was assured to this federation.
Previously, the undersigned had also discussed this issue with your goodself and you also assured that, five printing presses would be allowed to function with due modernization thereof to cater the requirement of various money value and other items used in the Railways. To our utter surprise, Railway Board had issued above referred to letter, vide which it was communicated to close the remaining five printing presses which were to continue functioning as per assurance given to this federation. You may also appreciate that, the above orders have been issued in total disregard of your personal assurance given to us on the subject. This action of the Railway Board tantamounts to complete breach of negotiated settlement, and it is further regretful that, your personal assurance, to continue five printing presses, quoted above, has also not been honoured. This would definitely result in shaking of trust and credibility of the Railway Administration, as the assurance, given at the MR’s level, is also not honoured in the instant case.

We, therefore, request your goodself to personally look into the matter, so that, the assurance given to AIRF, to continue five printing presses to function, is honoured and implemented.

With Regards,

        

√Copy to: Chairman, Railway Board, New Delhi – for necessary action please.

//copy//





AIRF : Letter to Hon'ble Minister of Railways on Corporatization of Moder Coach Factory / Rae Bareli and other Production Units of the Indian Railways as 'Rolling Stock Company' ..


No.AIRF/516                                                                                                        Dated: July 26, 2019
Hon’ble Minister for Railways,
Ministry of Railways,
Rail Bhawan,
New Delhi
Respected Sir,
Sub: Corporatization of Modern Coach Factory/Rae Bareli and other Production Units of the Indian Railways as “Rolling Stock Company”
Ref.: Chairman, Railway Board’s letter No.2019/E&R/10(10)/12 dated 18.06.2019
We are of the firm opinion that, all the Production Units of the Railways, including Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli, function efficiently well and can be proud of their workforce as also the management. Against an installed capacity of one thousand coaches per annum, MCF scripted a unique success story by manufacturing 1425 number of coaches during the just concluded Financial Year, i.e. 2018-19, doubling its production from the previous year (711 coaches in the year 2017-18). Continuing this tempo with zest, MCF is slated to manufacture 2158number of coaches in the current financial year to support the Railway Passenger Transport Operations. This tentamounts to tripling its production in just two years, a fact unheard of in any major industrial unit of the Indian Railways.
On the fronts of cost and economies of production, MCF has established a record by turning out top quality coaches at the lowest cost. As is evident from the fact that, in the Financial Year 2018-19 coach out turn was 1425 coaches on an average cost of Rs.2.06 crore, having total number of 2201 employees on roll only. The cost of manufacture of coaches at MCF is very competitive even when compared to imported LHB coaches which were bought at a cost of Rs.5.17 crore (approx.) per coach in the year 1995.
Similarly, production of rolling stock of different kinds has increased to a great extent in almost all the Railway Production Units over the years. So far as technological upgradation is concerned, Railway’s Production Units have come forward to manufacture T-18 rakes and air-conditioned EMU/MEMU rakes indigenously which are serving rail users’ to their utmost satisfaction. Obviously, Railwaymen have proved their worth to accept any kind of challenge in the field of manufacturing rolling stock (all types coaches/ locomotives) with the state-of-art technology.
However, we agree with the dictum that, even the best need not be perfect and there is room for improvement. We are for both financial and functional viability to all the Production Units, so that, the respective management and workforce can evolve best practices and procedures to make those units highly competitive in their performance. Any concrete proposal in this regard, from whichever quarter it emanates, is most welcome and workers will be too happy to consider.
Mere change in the form of the entity, we are convinced, will not bring about any performance related improvements, i.e. BSNL, which was a product of corporatization of a highly profitable departmental entity, is a glaring example to consider.
It is worth-mentioning here that, serious unrest is brewing among the employees working in the Production Units of the Indian Railways, including MCF/RBL, on account of Ministry of Railway’s proposal to corporatize Railway’s Production Units as an agenda of 100 day’s Action Plan. They are agitating this issue continuously by holding rallies, dharnas, demonstrations etc., which may result in serious threat to industrial harmony prevailing since nearly four decades over the Indian Railway System.
AIRF is, therefore, of the firm opinion that, Ministry of Railways should not go ahead with any move to corporatize Indian Railway’s existing Production Units in the larger interest of the workers as also of the Railway Industry.
With Regards,
Sincerely yours,
(Shiva Gopal Mishra)
General Secretary

√Copy to: Chairman, Railway Board, New Delhi – for necessary action please.

//copy//




Saturday, July 27, 2019

FB Post by Com.A.K.Padmanabhan, National Vice President, CITU ......

Though the Recognized Federations in the Railways are almost mum on Privatization, Struggles are going on in various Production Units and also in other areas. AILRSA, AISMA, GUARDS COUNCIL and various other Associations and CITU affiliated DREU are going ahead with Struggles.

They are also joining Central TUs and Federations in the National level Campaigns......

DEFENCE Production Units under  ORDINANCE BOARD are being Corporatized. 

All the three Recognized Federations, AIDEF, INTUC and BMS have decided to go for ONE MONTH STRIKE .......

SAIL UNITS and other PSUs are also prepared for continuous struggles.....

In the meanwhile All INDIA PROTEST DAY is being organised by Central TUs and National Federations against LABOUR LAW AMENDMENTS through Codification, which will take away the existing rights of the Working People in the Country...

The Govt has openly said that the CODES are for Ease of Doing Business.

NOW,

IT IS THE TIME TO GO FOR ACTION....
***
COUNTRYWIDE PREPARATIONS, MASSIVE EDUCATIVE CAMPAIGNS ARE NEEDED.....
***
THIS OFFENSIVE HAS TO BE DEFEATED...
**********






Policy for Non-Performing Civil Servants -- PIB


Friday, July 26, 2019

COUNTRYWIDE JOINT PROTEST AGAINST THE AMENDMENTS AND CODIFICATION OF LABOUR LAWS AND OTHER LAWS...........

Dear Comrades ,
Please read the joint statement of Central Trade Unions below. Confederation National Secretariat calls upon all affiliates and C-O-Cs to organise mass protest demonstrations infront of all major offices and at all important places.

M.KRISHNAN 
Secretary General
Confederation 

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

GRAMIN DAK SEVAKS :: IMPORTANT SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO.3150 OF 2019
(Arising out of SLP (Civil) 7627 of 2019)
Diary No. 41829 of 2018

Sr. Superintendent of Post Offices …               .....             Appellant
Versus
Gursewak Singh & Ors. …             ...                         Respondents

WITH
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 3151 OF 2019

(Arising out of SLP (Civil)No. 7628 of 2019)
Diary No. 41825 of 2018

Sr. Superintendent of Post Offices …                ......          Appellant
Versus
Smt. Swam Kanta …                  .....                    ......          Respondents


CLICK HERE   FOR THE COPY OF JUDGEMENT 






Pensionary benefits under NPS on Voluntary Retirement -- PIB

The features and benefits under National Pension System (NPS) and the old pension scheme are independent. Under NPS, there is a provision for voluntary retirement/exit prior to the age of superannuation, without linking it with the minimum number of 20 years of service.

As per Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Exits and Withdrawals under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2015, and amendments there under, the provisions for voluntary retirement/exit and the benefits available/ allowed under NPS to employees of Central Government who voluntary retires are as follows:

“3(b) where the subscriber who, before attaining the age of superannuation prescribed by the service rules applicable to him or her, voluntarily retires or exits, then at least eighty per cent out of the accumulated pension wealth of the subscriber shall mandatorily be utilized for purchase of annuity and the balance of the accumulated pension wealth, after such utilization, shall be paid to the subscriber in lump sum or he shall have a choice to collect such remaining pension wealth in accordance with the other options specified by the Authority from time to time, in the interest of the subscribers”

Further, as informed by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, the benefit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity has been extended to Government employees covered under NPS on the same terms and conditions as are applicable under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.

Recently, vide Gazette Notification dated 31.01.2019, the mandatory contribution by the Central Government for its employees covered under NPS Tier-I has been enhanced from the existing 10% of basic pay +DA to 14% of basic pay + DA. The employees’ contribution rate would remain at the existing 10% of basic pay + DA. There is no proposal to increase the contribution to 20 per cent from 14 per cent under NPS.

This was stated by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

*****
DSM/RM/PD

(Release ID :192138)

IT Returns : 'Due date' extended from 31-07-2019 to 31-08-2019

Extension of date for filing of Income Tax Returns 
The due date for filing of Income Tax Returns for Assessment Year 2019-20 is 31.07.2019 for certain categories of taxpayers. Upon consideration of the matter, the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) extends the ‘due date’ for filing of Income Tax Returns from 31st July, 2019 to 31st August, 2019 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers.
--PIB             
(Release ID :192157)


Submission of Life Certificate by Pensioners


Clarification regarding grant of Dual Family Pension i.e., Ordinary Family Pension (OFP) from Military Side as well as Special Family Pension (SFP) / Liberalized Family Pension (LFP) for reemployed Military service ..........



Friday, July 19, 2019

CGHS WELLNESS CENTRES :: Lok Sabha Q & A (19-07-19)




CLICK HERE  FOR DETAILS OF WELLNESS CENTRES (5 PAGES)







Simplification of the Procedure in CGHS -- PIB

CGHS Wellness Centres provide primary health care facilities and, if required, refer the beneficiaries to the Specialists at Government Hospitals/ Private Hospitals empanelled under CGHS. In emergency conditions, no endorsement for any treatment/ investigation is required from CGHS Wellness Centre. However, in non-emergency conditions or unlisted treatment/ tests, endorsement from concerned CGHS Wellness Centre is required.

With a view to facilitate ease of availing consultations from Specialists at empanelled hospitals, Government has permitted elderly CGHS beneficiaries aged 75 years and above to seek consultations from Specialists without any referral and undergo treatment/ investigations without endorsement.  Permission is required only for unlisted treatment procedure/ tests in non-emergency conditions.

The guidelines for referral issued vide Office Memorandum No. Z.15025/117/2017/DIR/CGHS/EHS, dated the 15th January, 2018 have been modified vide Office Memorandum No. Z.15025/117/2017/DIR/CGHS/EHS, dated the 10th December, 2018 and the following modifications have been made in the interest of sick people, pensioners and serving employees:-
  1. The referral shall be valid for consultations upto 3 times in the same hospital within 30 days.
  2. CGHS beneficiaries have been permitted to consult upto 3 Specialists, if required during a single visit.
  3. Investigations advised by Specialist of Private Empanelled Hospitals may be undertaken if they are required in emergency as certified by Specialist without endorsement by CGHS.
The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Sh Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, here today.

*****
SK/LK

(Release ID :191937)

Protest against Rail Privatization at Rail Bhawan ... video

CLICK HERE to see the video 






ORDNANCE FACTORY BOARD - DEFENCE MINISTRY - CORPORATIZATION & PRIVATIZATION