Monday 30 June 2014

Grant of Honorarium to Inquiry Officers (IO)/Presenting Officers (PO) - Clarification on yearly ceiling

it is clarified that the honorarium payable to IO / Presenting Officer for conducting inquiry in departmental proceedings would be outside the purview of the general delegation under FR 46 B which means the maximum amount of Rs. 5,000 payable as honorarium to an individual in a financial year is not applicable to honorarium paid for IO/PO cases.
Click here to view DoPT OM No. 142/15/2010-AVD.I dated 23/6/2014.

Vacancies for Postman / Mail Guard in Odisha Circle for the year 2014

 

Revised Delivery Norms of Speed Post : Addendum 2

All there is to know about opening PPF account for children

Parents may decide to open a PPF account in the name of their minor children for long-termsavings and reduced taxes. An individual can maintain only one PPF account in his name. When investors open the PPF account for their minor children, the account of the child is maintained under the guardianship of the parent. For all practical purposes, both accounts are seen as one.

Eligibility: A resident individual can open a PPF account on behalf of a minor child in the capacity of a guardian. Either of the parents can open the PPF account on behalf of the minor.

Documentation: KYC documents, a passport size photograph along with the proof of age of the minor child (birth certificate/school certificate) are required to be submitted along with the account opening form.

Investment limit: An individual's PPF account and PPF account under his guardianship together have an annual investment cap of Rs 1 lakh. According to PPF rules, the Rs 1 lakh limit is applicable for an individual, not on per account basis. Interest will not be paid on amounts exceeding the limit.

Declaration: Individuals need to declare all their PPF accounts — held in their name or their minor childrens' name — when opening a PPF account for a minor.

Tax exemption: The guardian can claim a maximum of Rs 1 lakh under section 80C. This limit will apply on the balances in both PPF accounts.


Points to note

1. Both parents cannot open a PPF account for the same child. One account per person rule will apply.

2. In case of the death or incapability of the parents, any other court-appointed guardian can open a PPF account for a minor child.
Source:-The Economic Times

LEDGER INQUIRY AND PRINTING OF CUSTOMER/OFFICE ACCOUNT IN FINACLE

Menu Option To Inquire Office

HACLI          - Ledger Inquiry of Customer Account
HACLINQ    - Office Account Inquiry
HACLPCA   - Customer Account Ledger Print
HACLPOA   - Office Account Ledger Print

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View Account Details And Balance

HACDET    - Account Balance Details
HACCBAL - Component of Account Balance Inquiry.

CHANGE IN RULES / PROCEDURES IN THE BACK DROP OF CBS

Secretary General , NFPE writes to Secretary ( Posts ) on incalculable miseries and untold suffering to the operative staff in CBS rolled out offices

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES
1st Floor, North Avenue Post office Building, New Delhi - 110001

Ref: PF/NFPE/CBS                                                                       Dated – 27.06.2014
To

Ms Kaveri Banerjee
Secretary
Department of Posts
Dak Bhawan, New Delhi – 110001

Madam,

Sub: -  Incalculable miseries and untold suffering to the operative staff in CBS rolled out offices – Immediate remedial and rescue operations sought for – reg.


At the outset, we appreciate the efforts leads to technological advancements and extend our fullest cooperation in the journey to reach the desired goals of implementing innovative customer centric services and operational efficiency enhancement by inducting state of art technology.

But to our dismay, the CBS migrated offices are now facing incalculable miseries and untold sufferings due to lack of adequate network capabilities and software support of the vendors. The following are the issues to be set right in war foot manner at the initial stage itself otherwise leads to garboil and distress among the stake holders especially among the working staff.

1)      Insufficient bandwidth Network:
            Providing of strong and stable network is base of successful implementation of India Post project.   Now almost all HOs have been given 2 MBPS bandwidth line, LSG SOs 512 KBPS line and B and C class offices have been given 256 KBPS line. If ‘India Post Project-2012’ is fully implemented, all the work of Post Offices will depend on these network. Present bandwidth speed is very less and due to low bandwidth, Finacle page is either not opening and  some time opening very slowly.   Due to this PO staff are forced to work up to night 10 pm many days. In many occasions in every CBS migrated office, the ‘Login’ is inconsistent and for each transaction “Login” is forced.

If CSI and PLI are migrated and placed on this network the situation may further worsen. Hence we request to provide at least 4 MB bandwidth line to HOs, 2 MB bandwidth line to LSG SOs and 1 MB bandwidth line to B and C class offices.

2) Failure of Sify:
            In India Post Project 2012, NI Vender is Sify. On observation of quality and quantity of service being provided by them it is very much proved that  M/S Sify is incapable to give service to this  big department.  They do not have sufficient skilled manpower and it seems that they are not intending to give good quality service also.   At initial stage itself they have not made proper survey of all offices.  Before installing and commissioning they were very keen on taking installation report from concerned Postmasters/Sub Postmasters. 


            It is told that, as per MOU, all offices should be provided with NSP-1 and NSP-2 lines.  In almost all offices, NSP-1 is BSNL line and NSP-2 is either Sify line or Airtel datacard.   It is observed that in many offices they have installed Airtel datacard ,where as  Airtel signal is  not available at that place.

            It is also observed that M/S Sify is not recharging Airtel datacard  installed.  Instead they are recharging on receipt of complaint from concerned offices.  By doing this they are deviating from MOU and leaving the staff in the field in distress.

3) Finacle Problem:
            If we come to Finacle part, it is another tragedy.   Initially it was boosted that Finacle is fully foolproof software and successfully implemented in many banks.  We could not understand why Infosys is not utilizing experience gained in banks and  implementing  here.  There are so many bugs in the software and  more surprisingly  even after lapse of 6 months of implementation, nothing is changed.   All the issues raised at the time of January-2014 is still not resolved.  Moreover Finacle server becomes inaccessible many time in peak business hours or responds very slow. It is a naked truth that we are losing clientle and distancing from the customers only due to faulty service of vendors.

4) Lack of Guidance:
            No separate rulings are received to suit Finacle Environment. No authorities are giving authoritative guidance on many issues. 
For example
·         Role of SOSB in HO after implementation of Finacle at SOs,
·         Role of SBCO at HO
·         Fate of manual records on transfer accounts from one Finacle office to other etc.

5) Supply of Printers and Computers:
            At initial stage  new Computers and printers are supplied to pilot offices.  Rest of the offices are having   more than 5 year old  Computers and Printers  which are not suitable to present scenario.  Administration is pressing  hard to migrate offices without supplying required hardware. The old computers and peripherals either to be revamped or replaced to make it compatiable to the present environment.

6) Problem of User credentials:
            One each User credential is given to  trained staff.  But it is not clearly told what action to be taken while SPM/PA goes on leave especially in B class offices.   As sharing of  user credential is very  risky and dangerous, alternative arrangement  should be made immediately.

7) Due to slow network and frequent failure of server customers of the department are frustrated and moving out the department and needed immediate attention.

8. You may aware that we are struggling with outdated Computers and peripherals, which were purchased during the year 2000 to 2005 and immediate supply of needy new hardware to ensure the technological transformation in and effective manner.

9. Even proper up gradation of CPU is not made in many areas and the Software loaded is upto Windows XP in most of the offices. Presently it is a fact that windows XP is not supported by the Microsoft with updates.

10. Finacle can be better loaded with Windows 7 and hence the officers at ground level are pressurized to use pirated version of Windows 7, which may lead to litigation with Microsoft apart from non supporting with updates.

11. The MOU made with M/s Sify, for net work integration is limiting to low bandwidth such as 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps in many areas, serving with 1 server and 4 to 5 nodes, resulting in sluggish connectivity and takes hours together to transform the data. This results in hang over and the transactions could not be able to be made at the instant, as the Department expects, It requires atleast 2 to 4 Mbps and M/s Sify refused to increase the bandwidth now.

12. Further in the Data Centre, it requires to the level of 400 Mbps on the Network to receive the Data transmitted at a time from all the 680 offices but Sify is learnt to be provided with a minimum of 200 Mbps capacity. This affects the receipt of data from the end users at a time and take hours to complete the process. Further expansion is required when there is further migration.

13. The area of occupation in the main server at Mumbai maintained by M/S Reliance Ltd. is also not sufficient, which results in sluggish transmission of data from the entire 680 offices at present, at a time and even the validation cannot be made before 8:00 PM or 10:00 PM on all the days.

14. End of day process cannot be made even on daily basis and the staff have to wait for the nod from the Infosys even after midnights on several days and at times it can be made on the next day morning. Even the women employees are compelled to complete the EOD process in midnights and their husbands or wards waiting till midnights to take them to home.

15. Even the Help desk provided is not answering and the end users are taken to task and receiving brick bats from the irate public.

16. This results in closing of accounts in large numbers that too, can be made not on the date of presentation but after few days and our Department looses large chunk of customers, because of the miscalculations, wrong estimations and over ambitious activities and inadequate technological support.

17. Even the first and prestigious ATM of our Department unveiled by the ex Finance Minister Sri. P. Chidambaram at T. Nagar HO is not functioning from the date of installation and only 10 ATM cards are supplied on the first instant, that too only to the staff and some friendly users of T. Nagar HPO. But the ATM is provided with 24x7 A/C and a paid Guard, making huge loss to the Department and receiving severe criticism from the Print media.

18. The women employees should be relieved from this area of operation, till the situation improves, in order to avoid late night stays at offices inviting gender problems and unsafe returns to their home at midnights.

19. Further, adequate hardware and infrastructure should be given immediately to the CBS migrated offices with sufficient man power and proper remuneration for the extended hours, the staffs re serving.

20. In spite of all above cited problems the Postal staff is being worked on finacle software as matter of challenge and trying to give best services to the customers. In spite of all efforts the customers are not satisfying/delighting which hampers the reputation of the department. No PO which is upgraded with finacle are being closed before 8 PM every day. We are ready to work hard provided, solution for above problems are to be solved.

It is requested to sort out all the issues arising out of the CBS Migration and all the vendors need to be instructed to provide all the technological support as required by the field staff. As this is the pilot and sorting stage, if we failed to pull up the vendors to the level of expectation and necessity, later full implementation, restoration may be difficult with this vendor support.

It is further requested to spare some time and provide opportunity to present and brief our case in person for the welfare of our department staff and the clientle. Your immediate intervention as if house on fire is requested.

A line in reply is highly appreciated.

With profound regards,

Yours faithfully,

(M. Krishnan)

Secretary General

Source : http://nfpe.blogspot.in/

Tips to Complete EOD Successfully without issues

Tips for DO Successful EOD in Finacle
Do the transaction by Counter Operator carefully without mistake.

  • Each and every Transactions should be verified by Supervisor immediately.
  • Use HFTI to check whether any unverified transactions are listed.
Process of EOD

1) HSVALRPT SOL VAL Reports(Execution Level 3) > Submit

2) HPR > To See the Validation run Report(Click validation run report then click printscreen)

3) HSCOD - To Change Date (No.Of Parallel SOLs 1, then click Submit)

4) HSSI - Inquire on SOL status (See EOD Event status it shows SCOD running,After some times its shows EOD event not in progress then go tonext menu)

5) HSOLCOP - SOL Closure (No.Of Parallel SOLs 1, then click Submit )

6) HSSI - Inquire on SOL status (See EOD Event status it shows SOLCOP running,After some times its shows EOD event not in progress then go to next menu)

7) HSCOLD - SOL Closure for Last Day (No.Of Parallel SOLs 1, then click Submit )

8) HSSI - Inquire on SOL status (See EOD Event status it shows SCOLD running,After some times its shows EOD event not in progress).

Here Closure Date is TODAY date, BOD is Tomorrow Date, Last Successful SOL closure is alsoTODAY date, Next Working date is Day after tomorrow date. Closure is CLOSED, EOD Eventstatus is EOD event not in progress

Courtesy : http://potools.blogspot.in/

PLI - Central Processing Centre




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Postal Life Insurance to Sell Policies Online

Postal Services Board member (PLI) Anjali Devasher presenting postal life insurance award to Maj. R Subramani in Hyderabad on Thursday. Chief postmaster-general BV Sudhakar in the middle. | A SURESH KUMAR
HYDERABAD: Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance(RPLI) will soon allow its users to purchase and view policies status online and even pay the premium.
Completing 130 years, Postal Life Insurance, the oldest Life Insurance scheme in the country, is all set to roll out Core Insurance Solutions (CIS) across all its 812 head post offices/CPCs and sub post offices as its second phase of technology upgradation, said Faiz-ur-Rahman, chief general manager, PLI. The CIS is set to be fully operational in the next six months and has been operating in over 100 head post offices across the country as a pilot project.
During an interaction in the backdrop of an award ceremony to felicitate the outstanding business performers in PLI and RPLI, the CGM said that they have set a target premium of `9,500 crore to be raised in 2014-15. It had raised `7,500 crore in 2013-14 and `5,200 crore in 2012-13. ‘’We are unique in the sense that we assure highest return from our products. When no other company has declared any bonus, we have and we can,’’ he said. Speaking about the scenario in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, BV Sudhakar, chief post master general, AP circle, stated that the circle has set a target Rs 700 crore premium to be raised in 2014-15.
‘’PLI for us means prosperity, longevity and integrity. When the industry is growing at about 16 per cent, we in AP circle are growing at 25 to 30 percent,” he said. 
Further, explaining how PLI is able to offer highest returns with lowest premiums, he said that since the sale, service and redressal of complaints are all done through the network of department of posts, the operation costs remain very low compared to other insurance providers, and the surplus thus generated is passed on to insurants in the form of higher bonus. 
At present, the number of live policies in PLI and Rural PLI is almost 28 million. The corpus size is nearly `50,000 crore and the total sum assured for all policies put together come to `1.99 lakh crore, he said.


Source : http://www.newindianexpress.com/

Postal Exam : Update as on 29/06/2014 - Schedule of Paper II (Computer Skill Test)


Postal Exam : Update as on 29/06/2014

Schedule of Paper II (Computer Skill Test) for the following Postal Circles is as follows:

Postal Circles
Exam Date
Exam Time
Haryana (17),
Kerala (22)            
12 & 13 July 2014
09:00 AM onwards in Batches of 2hr each. Please check your Admit Card for timings

Candidates for the above mentioned Postal Circles may check their status for Paper I by Logging into the website. Candidates, shortlisted to appear in the Paper II, may download the Admit Cards.

Please keep visiting the website for exam schedules for other Postal Circles & updates.


Answer Keys of Paper I conducted on May 25, 2014 at Andhra Pradesh (11) Postal Circle is now accessible. Candidates may LOGIN to view & post observations, if any, till July 04, 2014

Vacancy position for IP ( Deptl. Exam.) - 2014 in Odisha Circle