KAVALIPOST

Wednesday 29 October 2014

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY COM. M. KRISHNAN, SECRETARY GENERAL, CCGEW, IN THE INAUGURAL SESSION OF 21ST AIC OF AIPAEA



Prof. G. HARAGOPAL, NATIONAL FELLOW, ICSSR, KEYNOTE ADDRESS IN THE OPEN SESSION OF THE 21ST ALL INDIA CONFERENCE OF AIPAEA


AIPAEA 21ST AIC - KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON "OUR APPROACH TO 7TH CPC" BY COM. KKN KUTTY, PRESIDENT, CCGEW



AIPAEA 21ST AIC - INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY COM. S.K.VYASJI, ADVISOR, CCGEW - REFLECTIONS ON THE AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS EMPLOYEES MOVEMENT



List of CPIOS and their Appellate Authorities - Postal Accounts Wing, Postal Directorate



7th CPC visit to Mumbai from 6th November, 2014 to 8th November, 2014



Percentage of women in the Government Service and age limit for entering the Govt service

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions was requested to answer the following questions regarding status women employees in Central government services. Singh Shri Bhola M.P (Question No.4934) has raised the following questions in Parliament.
(a) The percentage of women in the Government service and the increase in percentage during the last three years;
(b) Whether the Government has taken/ contemplating to take any policy decision to encourage women to join Government service and if so, the details thereof;
(c) Whether in several competitive examinations, the maximum age limit for general candidates is 27 years and if so, the details thereof;
(d) Whether there is a need for increasing the maximum age limit for women for entry in theGovernment service; and
(e) If so, the details thereof and the measures taken in this regard?
In his reply to the above questions the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Shri .DR. JITENDRA SINGH submitted the following answer in Lok Sabha on 13.08.2014
(a): Details of percentage of women in Government service over the years, as per the Census of Central Government Employees, 2012, released by Directorate General Employment & Training are at Table-1 in the Annexure.
(b): In order to encourage the women to join Government service, they are provided some special facilities as under:
(i) maternity leave (ii) child care leave (iii) child adoption leave (iv) special allowance to women with disability (v) provision of crèche facility (vi) posting of husband and wife at the same station (vii) special priority in allotment of residential accommodation (viii) provision for protection of women from acts of sexual harassment (ix) age relaxation for appointment to widows, divorced woman and woman judicially separated from their husbands and who are not remarried (x) special dispensation for woman officers of All India Services of North East cadre (xi) change of Cadre in case of marriage of All India Service Officer and (xii) exemption from payment of fee for examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and Staff Selection Commission.
Also, as per the recommendations of the 62nd Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee, publicity to encourage women to prefer/ join Government Service is being given.
(c): The upper age limit for general candidates for entry in the Government Service is as at Table-2 of the Annexure.
(d) & (e): There is a provision for age relaxation for appointment in Government service for Widows, divorced Women and Women judicially separated from husbands and not re- married, upto 35 years for posts of Group C filled through Staff Selection Commission/ Employment Exchange (upto 40 years for members of Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes).
ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4934 FOR ANSWER ON 13.08.2014.
ANNEXURE
TABLE- 1

WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT OVER THE YEARS

Year
    Total No. of employees                    (in lakhs)
No. of Women employees    (in lakhs )
      Percentage
1991
38.13
2.88
7.58
2001
38.76
2.91
7.53
2009
30.99
3.11
10.04
TABLE- 2

UPPER AGE LIMIT FOR DIFFERENT POSTS IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE

S.No
Posts
Age Limits
I
Posts having Grade Pay more than Grade Pay Rs.7600/-
Preferably below 50 years
II
Posts having Grade Pay Rs.7600
50 years
III
Posts having Grade Pay Rs.6600
40 Years
IV
Posts having Grade Pay Rs.5400
35 Years
V
Posts having Grade Pay Rs.4200, 4600 and 4800
30 Years
VI
Posts having GP Rs. 1800, 1900,  2000,  2400 and 2800
Between 18 and 25 years

Note: The upper age limit for recruitment by the method of Direct Open Competitive Examination to the Central Civil Services and Civil posts specified in the relevant Service/ recruitment rules shall be increased by two years.


Grant of House Rent Allowance to Central Government Employees on Transfer from one station to another station – MoD orders

Tele : 23012408
No. A/81397/DGQA/ADM/RMD (CW)

9 Oct 2014

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE 
DGQA/ADM/RMD (CW)

GRANT OF HRA TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ON TRANSFER FROM ONE STATION TO ANOTHER – INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING

1. As per the instructions contained in Min of finance (Departments of Expenditure) OM No. 11014/2/Ell(B)/82 dt 19 Mar 1983 read in conjunction with Min of Finance OM No. F2(37)-Ell(B)/64 dt 27 Nov 1965, ” A Government servant, who, on transfer, has been permitted to retain Government accommodation at the old station on payment of normal rent or penal rent or retains Government accommodation unauthorisedly on payment of market rent etc, will not be entitled to HRA at the new station for the period beyond 8 months from the date of his transfer”.


2. It may be ensured that the provisions and procedures for claiming HRA as per MoF letters under reference and after obtaining NAC as governed by SRO-31 for DGQA Pool of Accommodation.

3. This may be disseminated to all Establishments under your control for information and necessary action.

4. This has the approval of DGQA.

sd/-
(OP Singh)
Col

Dir (Works)


Central Trade Unions in India To observe "NATIONAL PROTEST DAY” on 5th December, 2014 -- Press Note




Month-long Winter Session to commence on 24th November

New Delhi: Winter session of Parliament will start from November 24 and conclude on December 23 during which a heavy legislative agenda is on the cards. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday recommended the dates to the President.

The month-long session will have a total of 22 sittings in which four days have been earmarked for Private Members' business.

A total of 67 bills 59 in Rajya Sabha and eight in Lok Sabha are pending and the government will push for passage of "at least 30 to 35" legislations, a senior minister said.

This will be the second major session since the Narendra Modi Government took over in May.

The long wait for finalisation of seating arrangement in Lok Sabha is expected to be over before the session commences, almost six months after the constitution of the new House.

"We expect the arrangement to be in place before the winter session," said an official at Parliament over the exercise which has dragged on after the declaration of the results of the 16th Lok Sabha polls on May 16.

Average number of sittings in the past five Winter sessions has been 22 and the dates were decided based on precedents, source said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Anant Kumar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu are members of the Committee.


HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Ministers of state for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Javadekar and Santosh Gangwar are special invitees to the Committee.

The extract of Rule 152 of Postal Manual Volume V - Production of postal Records for investigation purpose

This is a vital information to our postal comrades to keep their attention in certain cases :



Text of the Speech Of the Speech of Secretary (Expenditure) Delivered at the Inauguration of Cross Regional International Conference on “Increasing Financial Outreach of the Youth Population, 2014-Postal Savings Bank Forum and 90th Anniversary of World Thrift (Savings) Day

“On this occasion of Cross Regional International Conference, I welcome participants from various countries, officials of World Saving Bank Institute and other officials from Government.

It is matter of pleasure that the Cross Regional International Conference is being organized in India. As a nation our significant population is young and youth will continue to represent a large proportion of our citizenry in near future. Considering such demographic profile of India, the subject matter and deliberations of the Conference with focus on ‘Increasing the Financial outreach in youth’ will be of significant value to us.

I note with satisfaction that the conference is well represented by eminent experts in this field and people having vast experience in running saving programme in their region. Your inputs and shared experiences will provide further momentum to savings movement.

India as a society is driven by the ethos of savings for our future generations and acquiring knowledge.  There is a verse in one of our classical and one of the oldest languages Sanskrit;

क्षणशकणशश्चैव à¤µिद्यामर्थं à¤š à¤¸ाधयेत 
क्षणे à¤¨à¤·्टे à¤•ुतो à¤µिद्याकणे à¤¨à¤·्टे à¤•ुतो à¤§à¤¨à¤® ।।

The verse implies that knowledge and wealth can only be acquired gradually by investing time and sustained savings, respectively. If one does not invest time, knowledge cannot be acquired and unless one saves, wealth cannot be built.  Not surprising, it is common place in India to set aside a sum as first charge from the income for saving for future generations and educating them.

With such rich tradition, India has always been a partner in the international effort to promote savings. Since 1924, when India was one of the signatory to the International Savings Congress, we have been unsparing in our efforts to inculcate the habit of thrift and savings have often helped us in tiding over difficult economic situation.

            While promoting savings it has to be realized that Government acts as the custodian of the pooled savings of some very under privileged sections. It is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that such household savings are completely secure, earn a good return to the investor and the money is available to the investor at the time of his or her requirements . Further this pooled wealth is channelized for the purpose of creating durable assets in the country.

To address these challenges, the first regulatory framework in India dates back nearly 130 years with the enactment of Government Savings Bank Act. In the post colonial period, Constitution enjoined upon the State moral responsibility to bring in economic equality and provide avenues for economic prosperity to all its citizens. Savings is one vehicle to usher in economic prosperity.

Responding to the responsibility placed by the constitution Government expanded the legal framework for small savings instrument to meet the enhanced requirement. To mobilize savings through Savings certificates, Government enacted a Savings Certificate Act in 1959 and to provide a social safety net to those working in the un- organized sector a Public Provident Fund Act was brought in 1968.

All the instruments and schemes to channelize small savings were made fully secure by the Government and carry the implicit guarantee of the Government. These instruments provide easy access and have features to provide liquidity to the saver. There are significant tax incentives extended by the Government to those making investments.

Contribution of domestic savings in National Development has been remarkable. India is ‘one’ among the counties having a high rate of domestic saving, which is at present to the tune of 30% of its GDP. The domestic financial savings rate which had declined during last few years has again shown recovery and with propagation of the programmes to encourage people to save more, we expected to attain a higher savings rate. The Government as a policy is committed to revitalize and strengthen the network which promoted savings among the masses.

India has taken various measures to encourage savings in the recent past. “Jan Dhan Yojana” of financially including those who are left unbanked is a major step in this direction. Further, Government has significantly expanded the bouquet of small savings scheme. A special scheme for the Girl Child will be shortly announced by the Government to address the gender imbalance. Similarly, a scheme with insurance cover to the under privileged is being worked out. Similarly schemes are being reintroduced and expanded to increase the flow of savings towards productive purposes. Recently, we have increased the tax incentive on investment made from small savings by 50%.

Children and young people are the future economic actors whose financial decisions, as prospective family heads, employees and community contributors, will impact, ultimately, on the stability of world economies. They need to be prepared to take on this role and responsibility. In order to be effective they need to start dealing with financial matters as early and young as possible. This needs support from both their family and their schools. Thus it is up to all of us to enable the systematic and structural platforms for extending opportunities to the young people. It also involves the creation of social and cultural environment and legal and regulatory framework to facilitate the financial engagement of children and youth.

India has one of the highest ratios of young people who are below the age group of 35 years. It is expected that nearly 2/3rd our population will ne young in coming decades. Similar situation is faced by other developing nations as well.  This is the greatest strength of the India economy of today. The relationship between youth and formal financial service providers needs strengthening. This can be done by traditional means as well as with the use of technological means at various levels since today’s youth is more familiar with technology. The same can attract them towards the financial products. I am sure, this WSBI Cross Regional Conference will address the issues of meeting this challenge and working out strategy to motivate the young to open and use their accounts.

India is committed to revitalize the small savings for the benefit of small savers and sustaining economic development. The cooperation between Government agencies like National Saving Institute, Department of Posts and Banks with the International organizations like World  savings Banks Institution, is a welcome step in this direction and I expect that this Conference will be helpful in formulation of new strategies based on the experiences of the esteemed delegates who have come all the way to India and in turn, they will also get enriched by the experiences of India in mobilization of resources and promotion of savings.

Financial inclusion is one of the most potent weapons to fight against poverty. I would thus like to emphasize that such cooperation should not end with this conference but must continue so that strategies for financially including those who are not a part of process are constantly built and recalibrated  . Further, the massive challenge of financial engaging the youth is adequately met. With these words, I wish the conference all the success.”


The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued 70 crore Aadhaar numbers as on 28th October 2014.

As on date, nine states including Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, have crossed 90 percent Aadhaar coverage, while sixteen states have Aadhaar coverage of over 70 percent. UIDAI is also conducting Aadhaar enrolments in the newly assigned states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, at a fast pace. These four states with a combined population of about 34 crore, were added earlier this year to UIDAI’s mandate by the government. Till date, Aadhaar numbers have been issued to 8.93 crore residents in these states, which is 26% of the target population.

Over 25,000 Aadhaar enrolment kits are operational across the country, including both camp mode and Permanent Enrolment Centres, with a total output of approximately 10 lakh enrolments per day. UIDAI has already geared up its processing capabilities to achieve the targets and has the capacity to process around 15 lakh enrolment packets every day. Enrolments are expected to pick up further once the festival season is over.

In the recent months, Government of India has provided fresh impetus to the UIDAI by linking Aadhaar to various schemes and initiatives, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), MGNREGA, Pensions, Scholarships, DBTL, UAN (EPFO), PDS, Passports, Attendance system in government offices etc. 

Aadhaar facilitates "anytime, anywhere" online authentication of a resident through universal verification of one`s identity based on the demographic and biometric information of an individual, thereby eliminating any chances of duplication or fraud. Aadhaar not only provides universal mobility of identity to every resident, but also assists in online booking of tickets and in applying for a passport. It is also a proof of identity (PoI) and a proof of address (PoA) for opening a bank account, as it meets the `Know Your Customer` (KYC) norms of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Under the recently launched PMJDY, Aadhaar, through its online e-KYC service, proves one’s digital identity beyond doubts and uniquely enables an individual to open a bank account instantly, in a paperless manner. Aadhaar is now the world’s largest biometric database.

For any further information, please contact:

ADG (Media), UIDAI at 011- 23466831


A Curtain Raiser on Postal Savings Banks Forum

The Minister for Communications & IT and Law and Justice World Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad will inaugurate the Postal Savings Banks Forum in New Delhi tomorrow.

This year’s forum is being organised by World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) jointly with the National Savings Organisation (Ministry of Finance) and the Department of Posts. 

The theme of this year’s Postal Savings Banks Forum will be "The rising force of postal banking in the retail banking market".

The role of postal operators in the world of retail banking is often overlooked. Post Offices worldwide hold 1.6 billion savings and deposit accounts. This is second only to commercial banks, which hold about 2.5 billion accounts. Thus, post offices are critical to the pursuit of financial inclusion, which is recognised today as a vital pre-requisite to socio-economic development.

The Universal Postal Union estimates that several hundred million people, often without an account, use the Post to make and receive basic payment transactions such as domestic and international transfers, government payments and utility payments. Postal operators, in all their activities, have always relied on a business model based on large volumes and low costs. Combined with the universal service obligation through which the State gives the mandate to the Post to serve the entire population, these specific features make the Post a worthwhile ally in the fight against financial exclusion.
 

Financial inclusion brought about through the postal network is called postal financial inclusion. India has about 1.55 lakh post offices, which is more than the combined branch strength of commercial banks (about 1 lakh). The number of savings accounts held in post offices in India is about 31 crore, which is more than that of any commercial bank in the country. The postal network possesses excellent cash management abilities and is trusted for its governance practices. Thus India seems to have the right mix of ingredients to deliver concrete results in postal financial inclusion. Hence the WSBI Postal Savings Bank Forum is of considerable interest to the Banking Sector in India.

Office Memorandum on Regularization of Casual Labour with Temporary Status - Proposals from Ministries & Departments




Government to launch revamped Kisan Vikas Patra soon: Finance Ministry

New Delhi: The government will soon launch the revamped Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) besides some new saving instrument programmes for the girl child as well for the physically challenged person, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.

"We are going to launch the revamped Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) soon again in the form of saving instrument," Rajat Bhargava, Joint Secretary (Budget) in the ministry finance said at an event here.
    
"Similarly, the government of India is also going to launch some new saving instrument programmes for girl child as well as for the physically challenged person who has not been covered so far (under the programme)," Bhargava added.
     
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the Budget speech, had said he will re-introduce the KVP, which was a very popular instrument among small savers.
    
"I plan to reintroduce the instrument to encourage people, who may have banked and unbanked savings to invest in this instrument," Jaitley had said.
    
The KVP was discontinued by the UPA government in 2011 following the Shyamala Gopinath Committee report. It had suggested that KVPs may be discontinued as they are prone to misuse.
     
KVP was a popular saving scheme that doubled the money invested in eight years and seven months. The government sold these saving bonds through Post Offices in the country.
    

The new government has identified financial inclusion and access to formal financial channels as a priority area and the reintroduction of KVP is seen as furthering this objective.



Medicines under CGHS can be issued for up to 3 months at a time in chronic diseases

F.No 2-2/2014/CGHS PPT/CGHS(P)
Government of India
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
Department of Health & Family Welfare

Nirman Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road
New Delhi 110 108

Dated: the 21st October , 2014

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Sub- Issue of medicines / reimbursement of expenditure on investigations / treatment procedures / implants and other medical devices under CGHS- regarding

             With reference to the above mentioned subject the undersigned is directed to draw attention to paragraph (c) and (d) of the Office Memorandum of even No dated the 25th August 2014 and to state that in response to the representations received from CGHS beneficiaries in this regard , it has now been‘decided by the competent authority to withdraw the provisions under para (c) and para (d) of the Office Memorandum No 2-2/2014/CGHS HQ/ PPT/CGHS(P) dated the 25th August , 2014 [view] and to restore the status existing prior to the issue of above stated OM dated the 25th August, 2014.

In other words medicines under CGHS can be issued for up to 3 months at a time in chronic diseases on the basis of a valid prescription and for up to 6 months for those beneficiaries who are going abroad, as was the case prior to issue of OM dated 25.8.2014.

sd/-
(RAVI KANT)
Under Secretary to Government of India





Tuesday 28 October 2014

POSTAL JCA - FIVE DAYS DHARNA PROGRAMME COMMENCED ON 27/10/2014 IN ODISHA CIRCLE IN FRONT OF CHIEF PMG OFFICE, BHUBANESWAR



HOLDING OF NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL (JCM) (STAFF SIDE).

DOPT Notification ---- Appointment of Chief Information Commissioner


CLICK HERE to view
 

UPU News : FORUM ON THE INTERNET OF POSTAL THINGS

The development of the Internet of Things — sensor technologies that enable physical objects to collect and communicate data via the Internet in real-time — is the latest in a series of technology revolutions that have the potential to radically change how postal organizations drive innovation, efficiencies and customer satisfaction.

By 2020, there could be as many as 80 billion internet-connected devices continuously collecting and communicating data helping organizations increase productivity, cut costs and develop new products. Postal operators, with their unparalleled physical presence and interconnected global network, are ideally positioned to benefit from the opportunities offered by the Internet of Things. In the future, the possibility of equipping the postal infrastructure with low-cost sensors – The Internet of Postal Things – will exponentially expand the capability of postal operators to collect valuable data able to improve operational, business, and strategic decision-making. During this forum, experts, postal organizations and industry representatives will define the Internet of Things and discuss what opportunities it presents for global postal operators.
 
 
 

 

 

 

PostMan examination question paper held 26/10/2014









NFPE DIAMOND JUBILEE CELEBRATION AT THRISSUR DIVISION (KERALA).




Govt Employee Can’t Seek Promotion After Refusing It: SC

New Delhi: A government employee, whose promotion is canceled owing to his refusal to accept it, cannot ask for it at a later stage, the Supreme Court has said.

The apex court set aside the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had directed the state government to restore the promotion of one of its employees whose promotion was cancelled after he turned down the offer as he did not want to get transferred to some other place.

“As we find that it is the respondent himself who is responsible for cancellation of the promotion order as he did not join the promoted post, the impugned order of the high court is clearly erroneous and against the law,” a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said.

The court passed the order on an appeal filed by Madhya Pradesh government challenging the high court order.

The government had submitted that the high court failed to consider that Ramanand Pandey himself sent back the promotion order and continued on his post and approached the court after two years when it cancelled his promotion.

It said that at the time of promotion, Pandey was posted in Bhind district where he remained for almost 15 years and his intention was to stay at that place only.

The apex court, after hearing both sides, quashed the high court order.

“It is clear that he wanted to remain in Bhind district, where he had continued since 1990, as he was ready to go on leave instead of joining the place of transfer. Moreover, for more than two years from the date of cancellation of the order of promotion, the respondent kept totally mum and maintained stoic silence.

“There was not even a semblance of protest as to why his promotion order was cancelled or that he wanted to join the promotion post after the alleged inquiry into the so-called complaint was over. He filed the writ petition on October 24, 2008, i.e. almost two years after cancellation of his promotion order,” it said.



The Rs 2,66,000 crore NREGA boondoggle; for every Rs 5 spent, the poor get Re 1 - NEWS

It is not surprising that any talk of revamping the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA for short) brings forth a deluge of protest from jholawala economists and vested interests. The Left loves government spends in the name of the poor, regardless of corruption and unmindful of actual results.
The Modi government’s proposal to change the spending mix on NREGA from 60:40 (for material and wages) to 51:49 and to focus the scheme on the 200 poorest districts (or 2,500 blocks) has brought forth a open letter from 28 “leading” economists to abandon the effort. “Despite numerous hurdles, the NREGA has achieved significant results. At a relatively small cost (currently 0.3 percent of India's GDP), about 50 million households are getting some employment at NREGA worksites every year. A majority of NREGA workers are women, and close to half are Dalits or Adivasis. A large body of research shows that the NREGA has wide-ranging social benefits, including the creation of productive assets.”

This is, of course, largely bunkum. Nobody needs to deny that some good must have come from spending a massive Rs 2,66,000 crore on NREGA over the last eight years, but even better results could have been achieved by abandoning the charade of providing employment at such huge cost and showering this kind of money from a helicopter in poor areas.

In fact, the evidence is to the contrary: the money is largely going down the drain.
As economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya note in a critique of the scheme in The Times of India, NREGA (after taking corruption and leakages into account) essentially spends as much as Rs 248 in order to deliver a net Rs 50 per person per day. In other words, the scheme is highly inefficient even as a poverty alleviation scheme as it takes nearly Rs 5 to deliver Re 1 worth of benefits to the poor. Would not the poor have benefited more from direct cash transfers of a higher amount without hassles and middlemen?
Quite clearly, NREGA is going the same way as the food subsidy scheme, where too just 12 paise out of every rupee spent reaches the right beneficiary .

To make matters worse, state governments are now dragging their feet on implementing the scheme, which promises one member of a household 100 days of employment every year, failing which some kind of unemployment allowance is paid by the states. A report in The Indian Express today (24 October) quotes from the minutes of an internal review of the rural development ministry on the scheme as saying that “states expressed their inability to continue the uninterrupted implementation of MGNREG, given the situation of an overall fund shortage.”

It is not as if the scheme, even now, is working to full potential. As against the 100 days of employment promised, it has seldom managed to provide even 50 mandays on an average per household per year. Mostly it has been in the forties. This year, the figure is down to 31.4 mandays per household till mid-October.

What this suggests is that both demand (for work) and supply (by state governments) is weak – raising questions about the viability and utility of the scheme. It is quite possible that demand for NREGA work may not be as robust as presumed, thanks to the general improvement in rural incomes with the steady and increased fund flows to rural areas, which includes investments in infrastructure and consistently rising minimum support prices (MSPs) for foodgrain.

If NREGA had been a big driver of rural incomes, it should have left its impact on food inflation too, but a Reserve Bank of India study found that MSPs and rising rural wages impacted food inflation more than NREGA wages. If the scheme had actually had that big an impact on rural incomes, one would have thought it would have been a major factor in boosting food prices since only the poorest of the poor opt for work under NREGA. And the poor spend more of their incomes on food than the non-poor.
It is quite clear from all this that NREGA is a costly boondoggle which is not achieving even its core objectives of providing enough work to the poor and building durable assets that can increase productivity. If assets had been built, they should have improved rural productivity and impacted food prices downwards. And if only 31 mandays of work are being provided against the mandated 100, it means either the work is not needed or not being provided.
There are thus three possible remedies now.
First, the centre could offer to transfer the funds allocated to NREGA in the budget as a direct grant to states to spend it on any poverty alleviating scheme that works for them. This would be in keeping with Modi’s federalist thinking.

Second, the funds can be converted to direct income support to the poorest of the poor using the Aadhaar-enabled inclusive banking scheme, the Jan Dhan Yojana. Not only will the money go directly to the poor, but their bank accounts would also start getting used.

Third, the best option would be to use the money to build rural infrastructure and assets in the 200 poorest districts where poverty levels are high. This way the projects will generate real jobs at real wages – and not just pointless work and corruption.

Any which way you look at it, NREGA has been a disaster. The NDA has to rework it to get better bang for the buck.


Postal JCA (NFPE & FNPO) Five days Dharna Programme from 27th to 31st October.....






Conducting of Inspector Posts and LGO Examination, 2014

Department of Posts (DE Section) vide its letter no A-34012/04/2014-DE dated 17/10/2014 has communicated the schedule of limited Departmental Examination for promotion to the cadre of Inspector Posts (66.66%) Departmental quota for the year 2014 and promotion of LGOs to the cadre of PA/SAs.


LDCE for promotion to the cadre of Inspector Posts for the year 2014.

Date of Examination
Paper No.
22/11/2014 (Suturday)
Paper-I & II
23/11/2014 (Sunday)
Paper-III & IV

LDCE for promotion of LGOs to the cadre of Postal Assistants / Sorting Assistants for the year 2014.


Date of Examination
Paper No.
23/11/2014 (Sunday)
Paper-I & II