No.
GS/AIAIASP/Merger-ASP/2013
dated 20/11/2013.
To,
Ms P. Gopinath,
Director General,
Department of Posts,
Dak Bhavan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi 110 001.
Subject: Merger of ASP cadre in to PS Gr. B cadre--- Proposal
regarding.
Respected Madam,
This Association would like to
bring to your kind notice that Directorate has constituted a committee under
the Chairpersonship of Member (Personnel) vide memo No. 1/1/2011-SR dated
9/9/2011 and accordingly, first meeting was held on 18/10/2011, followed by
another meeting on 3/11/2011.
(A) During the course of meetings,
it was brought to the notice of the Department about the stagnation being faced
in the cadre of IPs/ASPs and the long span of service running up to 26 years
which IP/ASP have to put in, before getting promotion to PS Gr.
B. The issue of restructuring of IPs /ASPs cadre was also discussed
in the meeting but it did not materialize. The issue of parity of GP and
promotional prospects of IPs in the Department like Income Tax and Central
Excise etc was also discussed at length and department has not considered this
also. Chairperson brought to the notice of this Association that it is the difference
in the hierarchical structures between Department of Posts and other
Departments like Income Tax and Central Excise as also Central Secretariat.
While in other Departments, Inspectors get promotion direct to PS Gr. ‘B’ but
in the Department of Posts there exists an intermediary grade of ASPs having
Gazetted status. The response of the Ministry of Finance, Department of
Expenditure was also informed in the matter of raising the Grade Pay of
Inspectors from the existing Rs. 4200/- to Rs. 4600/- so as to bring them on
par with Inspectors in other Departments. While discussing the possibility of
upgrading certain posts in the Circle Offices and other field formations to Gr.
B so as to accelerate the promotional prospects of IPs/ASPs, it has been informed
that Department of Expenditure has not favoured it unless the gazetted status
of ASPs has foregone so as to have single level in the cadre as it may
facilitate raising the grade pay of IPs from the existing Rs. 4200/- to Rs.
4600/- and may pave way for speedier promotion due to upgrading of certain
posts to Gr. B. In the said meeting, this Association has assured
that the proposal of foregoing the gazetted status of ASPs will be discussed in
the next CWC meeting of this Association and revert back to the Department with
a final proposal.
(B) This Association had their 37th All
India Biennial Conference in Bangaluru on 28/1/2012 and 29/1/2012 in which the
issue of merger of ASP cadre into IP cadre was discussed in depth and the
august house passed a unanimous resolution detailed here under:-
“This
Association is against the merger of Inspector Posts and
Assistant Superintendents Posts cadre. Inspector Posts
should be granted Grade Pay of Rs. 4600/- with effect from
01/01/2006 at par with Inspectors of CBDT/CBEC in tune with
directions of the Hon’ble CAT, Ernakulam Bench”.
The
decision arrived at AIC was forwarded to Member (P) by name under letter No.
CHQ/IPASP/1/2012 dated 22/2/2012. But till date neither any reply has been
received from Directorate nor this Association was called for further
discussion in the matter. Thus, the vital issue still remains unresolved.
Therefore this Association has requested Directorate to relook in to the issue
of merger of Inspector Posts and Assistant Superintendents Posts and clarify
the following points sought for vide Association letters dated 17/7/2012,
20/9/2012, 1/10/2012, 11/1/2013, 14/6/2013 and 19/8/2013. It is obvious that
these letters were also not given the much desired attention.
1. What would be the nomenclature
of the merged cadre without Gazetted status.
2. At present, IP/ASP cadre is
having separate Appointing / Disciplinary Authority i.e. DPS is the Appointing
Authority for IPs and Chief PMG for ASP cadre. Powers for imposition of minor
penalties on IP cadre vests with Divisional Head while for ASP cadre, the
authority competent is DPS. For major penalties, DPS is the competent authority
for IP cadre and Chief PMG for ASP Cadre. Hence it may be clarified as to who
will be the Appointing Authority and Disciplinary Authority for the merged
cadre.
(C) This Association would like to
indicate that 5th CPC in para 32 of Appendix 1 of volume 3
stated that cadre review has become part of cadre rules and they are to be
mandatorily held once in 5 years. It has also been observed that holding of
cadre review itself is a justifiable matter. However, the department has not
taken any further effort to implement the accepted recommendations of second
cadre review committee and also to review the promotional prospects of this
cadre once in 5 years as recommended by the 4th CPC and also
accepted by the Govt. In view of the stagnation faced by the Inspectors and
Assistant Superintendents Posts and ever increasing span of promotion, we have
made repeated requests to the Department to constitute third Cadre Review
Committee and we have also suggested re-organisation of postal sub divisions as
a possible outcome of the cadre review. But the Department has not constituted
any such committee so far nor has the Department initiated review of the
promotional prospects of this cadre on its own.
(D) The
duties and responsibilities of the Inspector Posts / Assistant Superintendents
Posts are laid down in Chapter III Rule 260 to 302 and 320 to 335 of Postal
Manual Volume VIII. However, this does not give the clear picture about the
actual duties performed in particular by Sub Divisional Inspector / ASP. The
duties and responsibilities attached to Inspector Posts / Assistant
Superintendent Posts has undergone a major change. Apart from duties prescribed
in the above quoted rules, they perform many more functions, which are not
specified in the rules. Broadly, they can be classified as follows:
· Mandatory inspections of sub post offices, branch offices & submission
of IR within stipulated time
· Visits / second inspections
· Investigations in loss & fraud cases/ past work verification of all
passbooks of all types of SB schemes in case of fraud in HO/ SO/ BO.
· Sanction of leave/ paid leave to GDS & acting as appointing authorities
of GDS & disciplinary authority of GDS.
· Achievement of targets in r/o PLI/ RPLI & marketing of different
premium products and supervision & after sale service.
· Credit verification in r/o RPLI premium collected by BOs
· Est-2 verification (to ensure justification of existing PO & creation
of new PO)
· Verification of statistics relating to work load of PAs, SAs ,Postman, MTS
GR-C, Branch PM, GDS etc.
· Invigilation duties in r/o departmental exam.
· Settlement of pending SBCO objections / minus balance cases.
· Heavy cash withdrawal verification
· SB/NSC claim verification
· RPLI incentive bill verification
· RPLI death claim verification & processing of papers.
· Collection & verification of Pension papers of PA, SA, Postman, MTS
etc.
· Collection of relaxation appointment papers & verification.
· Functioning as IO.
· Functioning as PO.
· Functioning as Ad-hoc disciplinary authority.
· Verification of mark lists submitted by the officials.
· Preparation of special report for departmental selection committee.
· Franking machine checking.
· Checking of passbooks/ money order payments
· Attending court cases (CDRF/CAT/High Court) & meetings with
AGP/PP/Govt. Counsels.
· Checking of punctual clearance of letter boxes by Posting “Test letters”
· Periodical mail survey
· Initial and final verification of house building cases
· Being the member of checking squads for detecting the leakage of revenue or
any other specific purposes.
· Imparting training to GDS / Postman/ MTS Gr-C/ PA/ SA.
· Monitoring of Project Arrow post offices- sending of DET file daily.
· Checking of delivery status of concerned Project Arrow POs daily.
· Cash conveyance to BOs/SOs/HOs with or without escorts.
· Conveyance of State Govt. Public Service Commission / SSC / UPSC
examination materials in postal bags to respective head quarters under police
protection /escort.
These are not exhaustive and still there are many functions the Sub
Divisional Inspectors / Assistant Superintendent Posts are required to perform.
Though many of the new additions are major in nature, the relevant rules have
not been amplified to include the entire gamut of work performed by the
Inspector/Assistant Superintendent Posts. It will not be wrong to say that the total responsibility for successful implementing the various innovative
schemes launched by department are virtually devolved on the IP and ASP but
department had have never taken care of the demands of the cadre, may it be GP
issue/ cadre review or anything.
(E) The 4th Central Pay Commission noticed
that the pattern of Recruitment for posts of Inspector in other Central
Government Organizations like Customs and Central Excise and Income Tax
provides for direct recruitment through Staff Selection Commission at the level
of Inspector. However,
in the Postal Department, there was no direct recruitment above the level of
Postal and Sorting Assistants, or at Group-B level. In the
interest of efficiency of service, it was felt
necessary to introduce an element of direct recruitment at the
level ofInspectors through the Staff Selection Commission in the Department of
Posts. The 4th Central Pay Commission recommended for introduction
of direct recruitment to that level under the Department of Posts to rectify
the anomaly and suggested that the two cadres of IPO/IRM and ASPO/ASRM cadres
can be merged, and accordingly, the Government was advised to examine what
scale of pay will then be suitable for these
posts.
The
5th Central Pay Commission reiterated its recommendation that Inspectors of
Post Offices and RMS should be merged and upgraded to Rs. 1640-2900 (Rs.
5500-9000 revised) and filled 33.1/3rd% by direct recruitment from the
Inspectors' Grade examination of Staff Selection Commission. The scale of pay
of Inspector of Post Offices/ Inspector of RMS was revised to Rs.5500-9000 with
effect from 01-01-1996 as recommended by the 5th Central Pay Commission as per
Office Memorandum dated 06-04-1998. It is submitted that the scale of pay of
Rs.5500-9000 granted to the Inspector of Posts was equivalent to the scale of
pay granted to the Inspectors and analogous posts in CBDT/CBEC and Assistants
in CSS.
Accepting
the recommendations of the 4th and 5th Central Pay Commissions in regard to
introduction of direct recruitment at the Inspectors level, the President in
exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the
Constitution and in supersession of the Posts and Telegraphs Department
(Inspectors of Post Offices, Inspectors of Railway Mail Service and Inspectors
(Uniforms)) Recruitment Rules, 1997 promulgated Department of Posts, Inspector
of Posts (Recruitment) Rules, 2001 introducing direct recruitment to the grade
of Inspector of Posts and Inspector of R.M.S. Column 11 of the
Schedule appended to the Recruitment Rules, 2001 provides that 33.34% posts of
Inspector shall be filled by Direct Recruitment through Staff Selection
Commission and 66.66% by promotion through Limited Departmental Competitive
Examination.
The
introduction of direct recruitment at the level of Inspector under the
Department of Posts, the Inspectors of Post Offices are brought on par with
Inspectors of CBDT/CBEC without there being any perceptible functional
differences, in the matter of duties and responsibilities or in the
hierarchical status.
The pay scales
of the post of Income Tax Inspectors under Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)
and Posts of Inspector of Central Excise were revised from Rs.5500-9000 to Rs.
6500-10500 as per Office Memorandum dated 21-04-2004. The pay scale of the
analogous posts of Assistants/PA's in Central Secretariat Service (CSS) and
Central Secretariat Stenographers Service (CSSS) was also
upgraded from Rs.5500-9000 to the scale of Rs. 6500-200-10500 w.e.f 15.09.2006 as per Office
Memorandum dated 25-09-2006. However, the pay scale of the Inspector of
Post/Inspector of RMS under the Department of Posts has not been upgraded to
the scale of Rs. 6500-200-10500 without any justifiable reasons.
(F) This Association would like to enclose herewith
a chart showing the sanction strength of IPs/ASPs circle wise and post wise.
The consolidated chart shows the total wing wise sanction
strength.
This
Association is not in favour to merge the ASP cadre into IP cadre. The decision
arrived at AIC Bangalore was already communicated to Directorate and now it has
been decided to go for merger of ASP cadre into PS Gr. B cadre, as ASP
cadre have already been conferred Gazetted status in 2005. All the
post of Sub Divisional Heads presently manned through ASP cadre i.e. 627 to be
downgraded to IP and remaining posts of ASPs i.e. available in DO/RO/CO etc
would be upgraded to PS Gr. B level.
1. Total ASP Sub Divisions (Postal) :
596
2. Total ASP Sub Divisions
(RMS) : 31
Total
(1+2) ...... :
627
3. Total
ASPs :
1824 (As per revised RRs)
4. After down gradation of ASP sub Divisions to IP Sub Division there will not
be any change in the number of sub divisions. Only ASPs posts will be reduced
and IPs posts will be increased.
i.e. Total ASPs would
be :
1824 – 627 = 1197
5. Total PS Gr. B posts as on
date : 866 + 10 = 876
6. After merger of ASP to PS Gr.
B : 876 + 1197 = 2073
i.e. Total PS Gr. B would be
7. Total
IPs :
2187 (As per revised RRs)
Matching Savings :
As on date GP of above three cadres are as under :
a) Inspector Posts
(IP) :
Rs. 4200/-
b) Assistant Supdt.
Posts :
Rs. 4600/-
c) PS Gr.
B :
Rs. 4800/-
a) The difference of GP between PS Gr. B and ASP is Rs. 200/- only.
Net effect including DA, HRA etc. would be
Rs. 425/- only.
If ASP cadre merged with PS Gr. B cadre then
additional expenditure would be as under:
1197 x 425 = Rs. 508725/-
per month
Rs. 508725/- x 12 = Rs. 6104700/- per
annum (Rs. 61 lacs)
b) The difference of GP between ASP and IP is Rs. 400/- only.
Net effect including DA, HRA etc. would be
Rs. 850/- only.
If 627 ASPs Sub Divisions are down-graded to
IPs, reduced expenditure comes to as under :
627 x 850 = Rs. 532950/- p.m.
Rs. 532950 x 12 = Rs. 6395400/- per annum
(Rs. 64 lacs)
Apparently net saving as worked out is Rs. 3 lacs per annum.
The number of resultant sanction strength would be as under:
IPs : 2187 +
627 = 2814
ASP :
Nil = Nil
PS Gr. B : 876 +
1197 = 2073
Conclusion: Since last 33 years no cadre review has taken
place for IP cadre whereas all other cadres had managed to get benefits in
their favour periodically. Only one cadre review was taken place for IP cadre
whereas 5 cadre reviews have already been carried out for IPoS cadre and 6th cadre
review is presently under consideration. Last year this Association was called
for to attend meeting in connection withOrganizational Restructuring in
Department of Posts and in the said meeting it was discussed about up-gradation
of Class II divisions to Class I division and in each division there would be 2
PS Gr. B officers. In view of the said meeting, the upgraded posts of ASPs to
PS Gr. B may be placed in division/RO/CO.
We are waiting for positive response and if required meeting may be held
with our Association for detailed discussion/clarification.
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
(Vilas Ingale)
General Secretary
Copy forwarded for information
and necessary action to :
1. Shri S. Sarkar, Member (P), Department of Posts,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001.
2. Shri V. P. Singh, DDG (P), Department of Posts, Dak
Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001.
3. Ms Trishiljit Sethi, DDG (Estt), Department of
Posts, Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001 w.r.to ADG (SPN)
letter No. 137-89/2013-SPB-II dated 11th October 2013.
4. Shri Arun Malik, Director (SR), Department of
Posts, Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001 w. r. to his letter No.
01/01/2011-SR dated 25/8/2011, 14/11/2011, 6/9/2012, 4/10/2013,
letter No. 02/02/2012-SR dated 17/4/2012 & letter No. 10-9/2013-SR dated 27th August
2013, 30/9/2013.
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