Expenses for the Training to be Repaid if Employee Quits

The Centre has made it mandatory for bureaucrats to execute a bond to pay back all expenses incurred by the government before taking up an advanced training programme, in case they leave the course or service mid-way.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has written to all states and Union Territories about inclusion of the new clause related to the bond for recommending officers to attend Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration (APPPA).

“The officer selected for the APPPA programme will be required to execute a Bond prior to his/her joining the programme and submit the same to his/her Cadre Controlling Authority that he/she will serve the Government for a period of five years, or to repay the total expenses incurred on the training in the event of his/her resignation, voluntary retirement or quitting programme without completing,” Joint Secretary 
 (Training), DoPT, Upma Srivastava said.

The 23rd Divisional Conference of FNPO,PTA was held on 26.2.2012 at Town hall,Pathanamthitta.

The conference was inaugurated by Sri.Anto Antony,Member of Parliament,Pathanamthitta.The trade union meeting was inaugurated by Sri.A.Shamsudeen,President,INTUC,Pathanamthitta dist,presided by Sri,Johnson.D.Avokaran,Circle Secretary,NAPE-Gr C.Sri P.U.Muraleedharan,Gen. Secreatry,NUGDS,Sri.Thrivikraman Nair,CS-NUPE-Postman&MTS,Smt.K.J.Dolima,Convener,Women's wing,Sri.B.S.Venu,Fin.secretary,NUGDS,Sri.Raju Thomas,Sri.Sam Daniel,Sri,M N K Pillai,Sri.Johny Joseph,Sri.V.Harikumar,R.Rajendranadan Pillai,Sri.V.K.Sreedharan,Sri.M.Thankachan was also presented.

  

 
                                                                                                           
            The conference was a grand success & it witnessed the emergence of FNPO as a strong departmental service organisation not just in Pathanamthitta but in the whole Kerala circle.Town hall hasn't yet ever witnessed such a mass crowd for a meeting of service organisation.The self-less attitude & appreciable commitment of our dear leaders made this function a grand success.This meeting again proved that the''pseudo-smiles'' won't help an organisation to rule forever.For the last 2 years the progress that FNPO had is really appreciable.What makes it more relevant is nothing but public interest that FNPO have among the staffs,and its not just biased inside FNPO,but among the whole employees.

                    Thanks to all those FNPO,Pathanamthitta members for making the event a grand success....!!!

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY - WEEKLY CELEBRATION

                International Women’s Day:President of India Shrimati Pratibha Devisingh Patil Gives away Stree Shakti Puraskar 2011 in New Delhi.
                              
The President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devising Patil has appealed to the women of the country to come forward yet to greater extent and participate actively in the development processes. She has lauded the women’s increasing contribution in the societal progress on all fronts. However, she lamented on the low child sex ratio which is at 914. The President, Smt. Patil was speaking on the occasion of International Womens Day celebrations at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital. Smt. Patil gave away Stree Shakti Puraskar 2011 to 6 women who immensely contributed in the social educational and economical upliftment of women in various sectors. Ms. Hypno Padma Kamlakar (Andhra Pradesh) was awarded Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Award. Ms. Hypno Padma has done her post graduation in sociology. She became the first women Hypnotist and psychologist to practice counselling and has conducted more than 1500 programmes across the country. Ms. Kanwaljit Kaur (Chandigarh) was given Kannagi Award for providing hope, guidance and counselling to blind girls. Ms. Jagmati Malik (Haryana) was given Mata Jijabai Award for women empowerment by organising self help groups on various issues including Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, MGNREGA, female foeticide, total sanitation and Right to Information. Ms. Draupadi Ghimiray (Sikkim) was conferred Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award for working for children with disability. Ms. Sandhya Pandey (Chhattisgarh) was conferred Rani Laxmibai Award for boldly facing enormous adversities in life after losing her eyesight in 1999. Ms. Rakhee Gupta Bhandari (New Delhi) was conferred Rani Rudramma Devi Award for outstanding contribution in getting women in the mainstream by encouraging women Sarpanches to appear in public offices.

Postal dept to help Indians travelling abroad and NRIs with RTI filing

After four years of struggle, Indians travelling abroad and NRIs would be able to file Right to Information (RTI) applications online through a dedicated portal managed by the Department of Posts.

Indians living abroad had been finding it difficult to use the RTI Act effectively as the government had not specified rules to pay the mandatory fee of 10 in foreign currency through the Indian embassies and high commissions. Applicants were largely depending on their friends back in India to pay the RTI fee.

However, now the government has decided to provide an Internet-based solution through the Department of Posts to Indians living abroad for submission of RTI applications.

The procedure, which has obtained the Reserve Bank of India nod, is user-friendly and uses already-functional e-commerce portal of Department of Posts, which has its own payment gateway.

To make an application, the applicant would have to login to the website and go to 'RTI counter' on the portal. Registration would be mandatory for the first-time applicant. After filling up the RTI application, and uploading of passport copy, the applicant would be directed for payment of RTI fees through electronic postal order.

The postal order would be generated from a special series and would be captured by the application. It would then be assigned to the public information officer ( PIO) of the department chosen by the applicant.

The struggle to streamline the RTI fee payment had started in 2008 when RTI activist and ex-serviceman Commodore Lokesh Batra was visiting his daughter in Boston. Batra had to file an RTI application and realized that there was no easy way of paying the fee of 10 for filing of application.

"I had an appeal hearing in the Central Information Commission the very next month. While the then Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah agreed to hear me through audio conferencing, I found that filing an application back home was difficult," Commodore Batra told ET. Thus began his four-year fight to make it easy for Indians living abroad to use the transparency law.

Source: The Economic Times

Latest Developments on Strike Demands:

Post men Committee: 3^rd Meeting was held under the chairmanship of CGM (PLI) . Secretary Generals of Both federations and General Secretaries NFPE & FNPO affiliated unions participated. Many issues were found solutions. Minutes will be issued to the Staff Side within fortnight. After seeing the minute’s final meeting will be held in the month of April-2012.

   Meeting with Member (P) :

   The above team (Secretary General NFPE & FNPO & general Secretaries of Post men unions met Member (P) and discussed the following issues.

 Item No (i) Recruitment rules of Post men/ MTS

 Reply:  Recruitment rules will be finalized within a week.

 Item No (ii) Casual Laborers issues:

 Reply: The committee has submitted its report under the chairmanship of Shri Manojit Kumar Ex CPMG Assam. The report is under examination and the meeting will be held with the staff side shortly.

Item (iii) : Filling up of Sorting/Head Post men, Mail overseer/ cash overseers:

Reply : DO letters will be issued to all Heads of Circles to fill up the Post at the earliest.

    Other Information’s:GDS Bonus ( 3500) Department of Post has send a positive note to ministry of finance to revise the GDS Bonus ceiling on PAR with regular employees. However we came to know from reliable sources that joint secretary finance has sent a negative note to ministry of finance to revise the Bonus ceiling on par with regular employees.

   Revision of OTA Rate:Our Departmental Officers prepared a report in favour of revised OTA rate. However Joint Secretary Finance has not accepted the views of Departmental Officers

   Protection of TRCA:The Committee is going to submit a positive note in support of protection of TRCA citing various examples and various recommendations such as Nataraja Murthy Committee and then MOC letter in favour of Protection of TRCA . Let us Hope for the Best.

   IPO Examination 2011 Results :Few Circles had allowed Post Master Grade I Officials to take up IPO Exam. Therefore the file has gone to DDG (P) for clarification. According to our information the results will be declared before the end of this week.

President FNPO & SG FNPO met DDG (P) & DDG( RECT & Petitions) and discussed various issues.

Recognition of Postal Federations

Glad News - Recognition of National Federation of Postal Employees and Federation of National Postal Organisations in the Department of Posts


Click here to see the recognition order from the Central Ministry