Saturday 11 February 2017

Govt to open 56 Post Office Passport Seva Kendra facilities

Enthused by success of two pilot projects on utilising the head post offices as Passport Seva Kendra, the government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 56 such facilities across the country.

The ministry of external affairs and the department of posts had earlier decided to join hands to deliver passport- related services to the citizens.

MEA and department of posts are working closely for the early commencement of passport-related services at such Kendras located in various states including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand and West Bengal, the ministry on Tuesday said.

“Once fully functional, applicants who apply for their passports online through the Passport Portal will be able to schedule an appointment at these POPSK (Post Office Passport Seva Kendra) to complete the formalities,” the MEA said.

The pilot project between the MEA and Department of Posts had started in Mysuru and Dahod (Gujarat), on January 25.

“With the successful operationalisation of these two pilot projects, the Government has now decided to scale up this programme, by opening 56 POPSKs,” it said.

“The pilot projects of the Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) have been running successfully at Mysuru and Dahod. We have been releasing 100 appointments for Mysuru and Dahod POPSK per day with cent per cent utilisation. Appointments for Mysuru (facilities) are now available in ten days while at Dahod it is available the next day,” the ministry said.

One Time relaxation for LTC tickets purchased from unauthorized agents

National Council (Staff Side)
Joint Consultative Machinery
for Central Government Employees
13-C Ferozshah Road, New Delhi-110001.
Shiva Gopal Mishra
Secretary
No.NC-JCM-2017                                                                                            February 9,2017
The Secretary,
Government of India,
Department of Personnel & Training,
North Block,
New Delhi

Sub:- Grant of one time relaxation to the Central Government Employees who have availed LTC-80 and travelled by air by purchasing Ticket from other than authorized agents.
Ref:- Decision taken in the New Agenda No.III of the Standing Committee meeting of the National Council (JCM) held on 25.10.2016
Dear Sir,
In the Standing Committee meeting of the National Council (JCM) held under your chairmanship on 25.10.2016 the Staff Side informed that many non entitled Central government Employees had availed themselves the benefit of LTC-80 and purchased ticket from unauthorized agents, unaware of the rule position. Subsequently audit had returned the LTC final claims without sanctioning them and advised the administrative divisions of the Ministries concerned to recover the entire LTC advance from their salary. The staff Side also informed that Ministry of Defence, with the approval of Hon’ble Defence Minister had forwarded a proposal to the DOPT seeking one time relaxation in such cases. The Secretary (P) informed in the meeting that the entire issue is under consideration of the DOPT.
To our shock and surprise the Ministry of Defence vide their ID Note dated 3.2.2017 has issue a letter to the lower formations (copy enclosed) stating that the DOPT has not agreed for granting bulk relaxation to thousands of Group B and Group C Defence Civilian Employees. Further DOPT has advised Ministry of Defence that the proposal for granting relaxation for booking of tickets through private travel agents may be scrutinized individually and has given certain guidelines which is practically difficult to adopt at this stage, since many such employees are due to retire from service shortly. It will be difficult for the administration to cross verify all those claims since the number of affected employees are more than 5000. In this situation we suggest the following for your kind consideration.
“In the case of those employees who have purchase air tickets from other then authorized agents and have actually travelled and submitted the tickets along with boarding pass, in such cases the administration may find out the actual LTC-80 fare from the concerned Airlines on that particular date when the concerned employee actually travelled and the claim may be restricted to the same and the balance amount if any claimed the same may be recovered from the concerned employee”.
The above proposal if accepted will reduce lot of administrative work and also will relieve the concerned employees from financial and mental hardship, thereby settling and outstanding issue once for all. In case of any further clarification required the Staff Side may please be invited for a discussion on the subject. Awaiting for your favourable response please.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(Shiva Gopal Mishra)

Secretary