AIRF: Safety of the Railway employees

AIRF requests Railway Board about Safety of the Railway employees

No.AIRF/24(C)

Dated: 5th November, 2018

The Chairman,
Railway Board,
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: Safety of the Railway employees

This is in reference to my discussion held today with you, wherein I have requested you to review immediately Removal Cases of the Railway employees of Kharagpur Division of S.E. Railway, under para 14(ii), as also to do urgently to save Railwaymen from run-over, forced to work under unsafe conditions without taking block, as happened today between Sandila and Umartali Stations in Northern Railway.

In this connection, your kind attention is invited towards my earlier letters, D.O.No.AIRF/24(C) dated 13th and 17th August, 2018, vide which your kind attention was drawn towards the unpleasant incidents of commitment of suicide by Shri Harrison John, Loco Pilot, Jabalpur Division(West Central Railway) and Shri Bablu Kumar, Trackman, Sholapur (Central Railway).

We had requested your goodself to take necessary steps to ensure that no Railwayman commits suicide in frustration and sense of disappointment. It is quite unfortunate that, there is no visible improvement in the situation up till now, and another case of suicide has been noticed, wherein Shri G.K. Kishori, Asstt. Loco Pilot, Kharagpur, South Eastern Railway, has committed suicide on 3rd November, 2018, out of serious frustration, which is highly condemnable as well.

Co-workers of Late Shri G.K. Kishori had resorted to agitation owing to failure of his superiors to timely address the problem of the said deceased employee and they need not be subjected to any punitive action.

It may be recalled that, on the consistent and regular persuasions, Railway Board had issued instructions, on your intervention, to invoke Clause 14(ii) in exceptional cases only where D&AR enquiry is not practicable and safety of the state is under threat.

Through this letter we want to emphasize here that, urgent necessary steps should be taken by counseling the concerned officials, so that, no Railway employee is compelled to commit suicide and lose his/her precious life as the entire family of such Railway employee is put under serious distress.

We had also requested that, keeping in view various attacks on the Railway employees on duty as also run-over cases of Railway employees due to negligence and overlooking of prescribed procedure and rules need to be given serious thought, so as to avoid recurrence of such unpleasant incidents.

It is also requested that, "Rakshak" should immediately be supplied, as well as you have promised; working on the track without protection must be banned, and if Trackmen are forced to work under unsafe conditions, the deterrent punishment should be given to the guilty supervisors and officers responsible.

While communicating our serious concern over such incidents, AIRF once again emphasizes that necessary steps be taken with all seriousness, so that, no such cases occur in future.

Yours faithfully

(Shiva Gopal Mishra)
General Secretary

Source : http://www.airfindia.org

Read More

No let-up in sanction of GST Refunds

Ministry of Finance

No let-up in sanction of GST Refunds

08 NOV 2018

There are concerns being raised about growing pendency of GST Refunds. Exporters are reassured that there is no le-tup in the sanction of GST refunds. The disposal rate is consistently improving month-on-month. As on 31st October, 2018, total GST refunds to the tune of Rs 82,775 crore have been disposed by Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the State authorities out of the total refund claims of Rs 88,175 crore received so far. Thus, the disposal rate of 93.8 % has been achieved as on 31.10.2018. The pending GST refund claims amounting to Rs. 5,400crore are being expeditiously processed so as to provide relief to eligible exporters. Refund claims without any deficiency are being cleared expeditiously.

In case of IGST refunds, about 93.27 % (Rs 42,935 crore) of the total IGST refund claims (Rs. 46,032 crore) transmitted to Customs from GSTN as on 31st October, 2018 have already been disposed. The remaining claims amounting to Rs.3,096crore are held-up on account of various deficiencies which have been communicated to exporters for remedial action.

In the case of RFD-01A (ITC Refund) claims, out of the total refund claims of Rs. 42,145 crorethe pendency as on 31st October, 2018 is Rs 159 Crore with the Centre and Rs 2,146 crore with the States. Provisional/Final Order has been issued in case of refunds amounting to Rs. 34,602 Crore. In claims amounting to Rs. 5,239Crore, deficiency memos have been issued by respective GST authorities.

Efforts are being made continuously to clear all the pending refund claims, where ever requisite information is provided and found eligible. Co-operation of the exporter community is solicited to ensure that they respond to the deficiency memos and errors communicated by Centre and State GST as well as Customs Authorities and also exercise due diligence while filing GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B returns as well as Shipping Bills.

PIB

Read More

Proof of Concept (PoC) of Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers

Proof of Concept (PoC) of Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers

Government of India
Ministry of Communications
Department of Telecommunications
(Access Services Wing)
Sanchar Bhawan, 20, Ashoka Road, New Delhi -110001

---

File No: 800-26/2016-AS.II

Dated: 06.11.2018

To
All Unified Licensees (having Access Service Authorization)/ Unified Licensees (AS)/ Unified Access Services Licensees/ Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Licensees. Subject: Proof of Concept (PoC) of Alternate Digital KYC Process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers-regarding.

This is in continuation of this office letter of even number dated 26.10.2018 vide which Licensees were directed to discontinue the Aadhaar based E-KYC process for issuing new mobile connections to subscribers and re-verification of existing mobile subscribers. Further, in para 7 of the instructions, all Telecom Service Providers were asked to ensure readiness of their systems and offer the Proof of Concept (PoC) of the proposed Alternate Digital KYC Process by 05.11 .2018 for approval.

2. As per the proposed digital alternate KYC process by Telecom Industry for issuing new mobile connections, the Customer Acquisition Form (CAF) is to be embedded with live photograph of subscriber along with the original POIlPOA document thereby digitizing the end to end process for on boarding of new mobile subscribers by making it completely paperless.

3. The procedure to be followed for issuing mobile connections using the alternate digital KYC process is as follows:

a. The entire process shall only be used through the authenticated applications (App) hosted
by the Licensees.
b. The access of the App shall be controlled by the Licensees and it should be ensured that the same is not used by unauthorized persons.
c. The customer desirous of obtaining a new mobile connection shall visit the authorized POS location of the Licensee or vice-versa. The original Proof of Identity/Proof of Address (PoI/PoA) documents shall be in possession of the customer.
d. The Licensee must ensure that the Live photograph of the customer is taken at POS terminal and the same photograph shall be embedded in the CAF. Further, the system application of the Licensee shall put a water-mark having CAF number, GPS coordinates, POS name, unique POS Code (assigned by licensees) and Date & time stamp on the captured live photograph of the customer.
e. Similarly, the live photograph of the original POI/POA documents shall be captured and water-marking as mentioned above shall be done.
f. Thereafter, all the entries in the CAF shall be filled as per the POI/POA documents and information furnished by the customer. In those POI/POA documents where QR code is available, such details can be auto-populated by scanning the QR code instead of manual filling the details. For example, in case of physical Aadhaar/e-Aadhaar downloaded from UIDAI where QR code is available, the details like name, gender, date of birth and address can be auto-populated by scanning the QR available on Aadhaar/e-Aadhaar.
g. Once the above mentioned process is completed, an One Time Password (OTP) shall be sent to customer's own alternate mobile number. Upon successful validation of the OTP, it will be treated as customer signature on CAF. However, if the customer does not have any own alternate mobile number, then mobile number of his/her family members/relatives/known persons may be used for this purpose. Further, in case if the customer does not have any alternate mobile number to give for this purpose, then the mobile number of POS registered with the Licensee may be used.
h. The POS shall provide a declaration about the capturing of the live photograph of customer and the original POI/POA documents and/or its registered mobile number used for customer signature. For this purpose, the POS shall be verified with One Time Password (OTP) which will be sent to his mobile number registered with the Licensee. Upon successful OTP validation, it shall be treated as POS signature on the declaration.
i. Subsequent to all these activities, the application shall give information about the completion of the process and submission of activation request to activation officer of the Licensee, and also generate the transaction-id/reference-id number of the process. POS shall intimate the details regarding transaction-id/reference-id number to customer for future reference.
J. The authorized representative of the Licensee shall check and verify that: (i) information available in the pictures of POI/POA documents is matching with the information entered by POS in CAF.

(ii) live photograph of the customer matches with the photo available in the POI/POA documents.
(iii) All of the necessary details in CAF including mandatory fields are filled properly.

k. On successful verification by authorized representative of the Licensee, the SIM card shall be activated and tele-verification as per the prevailing guidelines shall be done before final activation of the services. However, if the customer has given his own alternate mobile number, then tele-verification through the use of 5-digit OTP pin shall be done for activation of final services.

4. Only two mobile connections shall be provided per day per POI/POA document to a customer by a Licensee using the above mentioned alternate digital KYC process. However, in case more than one connection is issued, the entire process as mentioned above shall be repeated for issuing each connection.

5. The above mentioned digital KYC process is an alternative process to the existing process of issuance of mobile connections to subscribers and shall also be applicable for outstation and foreign customers. The additional safeguards in prevailing guidelines in respect of outstation and foreign customers shall also be followed in the above mentioned digital KYC process.

6. The proof of concept of the above mentioned alternate digital KYC process is to be done at two locations (rural & urban) by each Licensee. As on date, following Licensees have ensured their readiness to conduct POC and offered location of POC as mentioned below:

Name of Licensee	Location 1 (urban)	Location 2 (rural)
Bharti Airtel Limited	Delhi	Meerut
BSNL	Hyderabad, Telangana	Vikarabad, Telangana
MTNL	Mumbai	Delhi (as no rural location available for MTNL)
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited	RCP, Ghansoli, Navi Mumbai	Ganesh Nagar, Chichpada, Aeroli,Navi Mumbai
Tata Teleservices Limited	Kamal, Haryana	Assandh (Kamal District), Haryana
Vodafone Idea Limited	Delhi	Baramati, Pune District

7. Based on the POC results, further directions for any change in the process, if any, will be issued on the subject.

8. The existing instructions in general and particularly those issued vide letter No. 800- 09/20 I 0-V AS dated 09th August 2012 and all other instructions shall remain the same for issuing of mobile connections to new subscribers.

9. With regard to non-acceptability of Aadhaar/e-Aadhaar as POIIPOA documents in J&K, Assam and North East LSAs, it is clarified that at present there is no change in instructions dated 14.01.2011.

(Prashant Verma)
Assistant Director General (AS-II)
Tele No.: 011-23354042

Source:DoT

Read More

When will the arrears get paid? - Dearness Relief

When will the arrears get paid? - Dearness Relief

CENTRALISED PENSION PROCESSING CENTER

Payment of Pensions to Central Government and State Government Pensioners through Centralized Pension Processing Cell (CPPC)

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

31. When will the arrears get paid?
Ans: Payment of arrears, on account of revision of pension etc., received at Centralized Pension Processing Cell (CPPC) of the Bank up to one week before last date of a month, will normally be made along with monthly pension.

32. How the payment of Dearness Relief at revised rate is to be paid to the pensioners?
Ans: Whenever any additional relief on pension/family pension is sanctioned by the Government, the same is intimated to the agency banks for issuing suitable instructions to their pension paying branches for payment of relief at the revised rates to the pensioners without any delay. The orders issued by Govt. Departments are also hosted on their websites and banks have been advised to watch the latest instructions on the website and act accordingly without waiting for any further orders from RBI in this regard.

33. Where can a pensioner get information about the changes in the pension/ Dearness Relief or any pension related issue?
Ans: The pensioner can visit the Official Website of the concerned Government Department as also Reserve Bank of India Website (www.rbi.org.in) to get the information about pension related issues.

34. Can pensioners get pension slips?
Ans: Yes, monthly pension slip is automatically sent to the pensioner’s e-Mail ID if available with the Bank. In other cases pension slip can be obtained by the pensioner from any pension paying branch.

35. How to get SMS for the details of monthly pension
Ans: To get SMS Pensioner has to visit Pension Paying Branch (Home Branch) with request to upload his/her Mobile number in the Pension Application Software. Pensioner can get the details of monthly pension such as Basic Pension, D.A., Medical Allowance, Other Allowances, Commutation, Income Tax, Net Pension credited and the date of credit along with amount of commutation and gratuity paid through SMS from State Bank of India on regular basis.

Read More

FAQ for Central Civil Services - Pension Procedure

FAQ for Central Civil Services - Pension Procedure

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
(Central Civil Services)

6. PENSION PROCEDURE
(6.1) What is the meaning of the following terms?
(a) Pension Disbursing Authority
(b) Pension Sanctioning Authority
(c) PPO Issuing Authority
(a) Pension Disbursing Authority : Bank Branch/Treasury/Post/PAO Office paying your pension
(b) Pension Sanctioning Authority: The authority who sanctioned your pension before forwarding the case to Accounts.
(c) PPO Issuing Authority: Generally, the Pay & Account Officer is the PPO issuing authority.

(6.2) What should a Government servant do to claim his pension?
During service each Govt. servant should satisfy himself that service is being verified and recorded so in the service book and that there are no gaps in this. He should also ensure that nomination for all payments due to him are current and valid. Six months prior to the retirement date, a Government servant is required to furnish certain information (e.g. joint photo with spouse, family details, name of the branch of the authorized bank through which he desires to draw his pension etc.) to his Head of Office in the prescribed Form No. 5. The Head of Office is required to undertake the work of preparation of pension papers in Form No. 7 one year before the date on which a Government servant is due to retire on superannuation. After complying with the requirements of CCS Pension Rules 59 & 60, the Head of Office has to forward to the Pay & Accounts Officer Form 5 and Form 7 duly completed with a covering letter in Form 8 along with service book of the Government servant duly completed up-to-date and any other documents relied upon for the verification of service, not later than six months before the date of retirement of the Government servant.

(6.3) Who is to authorize the pension?
On receipt of pension papers from Head of Office, the Pay & Accounts Officer concerned will, after applying requisite checks, assess the amount of pension and issue the Pension Payment Order (both halves of Pension Payment Order, i.e. disburser's portion and pensioner’s portion) not later than one month in advance of the date of retirement of the Government servant with forwarding authority letter, duly inksigned and embossed, to Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) who in turn will generate on computer a Special Seal Authority on the basis of details given in the Pension Payment Order and authority letter of the Pay & Accounts Officer and forward disburser’s half of PPO with Special Seal Authority to the Central Pension Processing Centre (CPPC) of the concerned authorized Bank. The Pay & Accounts officer after ascertaining that the special seal of authority has been issued shall send pensioners’ half of PPO to be handed over to the retiring employee. However, if the employee opts to take the PPO from bank, both halves shall be sent to CPAO. All records will be maintained in the CPPC and the disbursing branch, will make the payments to the pensioner on authorization of payment of pension by the CPPC. The CPPC however is only the back office for processing pensions, all pension related problems/grievances of the pensioners will continue to be handled by the concerned paying branch as before.

(6.4) What is to be done in case the pension has not been fixed correctly?
The Pay & Accounts Officer while issuing the pension authorization will forward one copy of the pension calculation sheet (out of three received by him from the Head of Office) as certified by the Head of Office and countersigned by him (Pay & Accounts Officer) to the pensioner along with the intimation of his having sent the pension payment authority/PPO to the CPAO. In case it is found from the pension calculation sheet that pension has been fixed incorrectly, the matter may be taken-up with the Head of Office. PAO concerned, if necessary, will issue an amendment authority letter to Central Pension Accounting Office for onward transmission to the CPPC to carry out necessary amendments in both halves of PPO.

Read More