This question if gets an answer as ‘yes’ may sound a bit weird and unwarranted in employee’s point of view as nobody would like supply of  personal records to public.

Of Course there is sense in employee’s case in this issue as Service book of an Government Employee contains very important information about his/her service including disciplinary proceedings taken against him/her.

More seriously, Service Book of a Government Employee would also contain certain personal information such as nominees, present health status, whether undergone any family planning procedures etc., which could be misused against an employee by unscrupulous elements under the cover of RTI.

However, Central Information Commission has decided in a case recently which came for appeal that PIO to supply a copy of the service record of employee under RTI after invoking Sec.10(1) of the RTI Act to sever all those portions that are exempt from disclosure u/s 8(1)(j) of the Act as personal information.

An Extract of order portion in this case is as follows.

“The Commission however, holds that the Public Authority is obligated under section 4(1)(b) the RTI Act to disclose information related to the service of its employees and is not convinced by Shri D’Costa’s argument that such disclosure will endanger his physical safety as all this information is anyway expected to be placed in the public domain.
The Commission accordingly directs the PIO to supply a copy of the service record of Shri Allan D’Costa to the Appellant after invoking Sec.10(1) of the RTI Act to sever all those portions that are exempt from disclosure u/s 8(1)(j) of the Act as personal information. The information should reach the Appellant within four weeks of receipt of this order.”

Though CIC ruling contains a rider for safeguarding private information of a Government employee out of purview of RTI, officials who actually supply information under RTI may find it difficult to differentiate between public and private information related to an employee. In the process, RTI information seeker with profit or malicious motive could sneak in with private information of Government employees.

We hope Government would come up with a meaningful classification of public and private information of a Government Employee and notifiy the same for effective implementation at lower level, which could find an effective soultion to this issue

Gconnect

No.1/1/2013-1R 

Government of India 

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions 

Department of Personnel & Training

North Block, New Delhi

Dated: 17/05/2013

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Extension of RTI web portal for online filing of RTI application.

In continuation of this Department’s O.M. of even number dated 22/04/2013, ¡t is intimated that training to RTI Nodal Officers, RTI Cell officials and NIC/IT personnel attached with Ministries/Departments of Government of India have been completed by DoPT with the help of NIC.

2. It is again requested that training to all the CPlOs and First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) may be provided by the concerned Ministry/Department, through the officials trained by DoPT/NIC, User name/password to all the CPIOs and FAAs are to be provided by RTI Nodal Officers of the concerned Ministry/Department. It is imperative that the RTI Nodal Officers start updating the details of CPIOs / FAAs in the system and issue user name and password to them at the earliest.

3. As mentioned in the said O.M., it is planned to extend the facility of RTI online web portal to all the Ministries/Departments of Government of India. This facility is being extended to Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Department of Consumer Affairs and Department of Food and Public Distribution from 22 May 2013.

sd/- 

(Sandeep Jain) 

Deputy Secretary

Very soon, short code 5676714 will become an integral setp to kick-start your travel programme. One has to SMS his or her travel details and SARATHI will book the ticekt and deliver it in a flash, through SMS.  The first step to book a mobile ticket is to register self with IRCTC in a system aimed at easing the pressure on the Internet, whose link gets choked in peak hours, especially while tatkal tickets are being booked.

            One has to send in details to the short code, which has been approved by all mobile service operators, for authentication by SARATHI, which will respond by sending a pre-composed message, seeking journey details.  It will also send details of ticket availability and other information.

            The Railways intend to introduce the concept of M-wallet as a payment option, besides the Interbank Bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) that requires registration with a bank. M-wallet, a pre-paid instrument, will be available at all mobile retail outlets where customers can recharge it as they recharge prepaid mobile connections.  Even post-paid mobile customers can make use of this platform.

            Once the fare is deducted from the bank account, the ticket will be delivered through an SMS. All mobile operators have been roped in, officials say, and their 1.5 lakh retail outlets will sell M-wallet. This system will come in handly for booking tickets even from any remote corner of the country, where Internet connections are still scarce. The Railways also plan to extend the scope of mobile booking with add-on facilities. It wants to make available cars and hotel rooms on rent. About 5,000 hotels have been tied up.

The Hindu

FORM – 2

REIMBURSEMENT OF CHILDREN EDUCATION ALLOWANCE

{Ref :OM No. 12011/03/2008 ( Allowance) Dated 02/09/2009}

1.   Certified that the children/child  mentioned below in respect of whom re-imbursement of Children Education Allowance claimed  is  wholly dependent upon me:-

2.    Certified that the Education Allowance indicated against the Child/Children  has actually been paid by me (Receipts enclosed )

(Note :-Copy of School fee card & Bank challans/Paid up Receipts/ purchase receipts in original are to be  enclosed)

 3.  Certified that :-

            i) my spouse is not a Central Government servant

ii) my spouse is a Central Govt. servant and that she/he  has not  claimed /will not claim children’s educational allowance in respect of our child/children.

4. Certified that during the period covered by the claim the child attended the school regularly and did not absent himself/herself from the school without proper leave for a period exceeding one month.

5. In the event of any change in the particulars given above which affect my eligibility for children’s educational allowance, I undertake to intimate the same promptly and also to refund excess payments, if any made.

Note :  # Tuition Fee Means Tuition fee, Admission fee, lab fee, special fee charged for agriculture, electronics, music or any other subject, Fee charged for practical work under the programme of work experience, fee paid for the use of any aid or appliance by the child, library fee, games/sports fee and fee for extra curricular activities.

Encl :

PLACE & Date:                                       (Signature of the Govt. servant)                                                                      

IZT Order of Hyderabad CCA Superintendents has been  issued vide EO (GO) No. 20/2013, dt. 16-5-2013. Total 41 officers from Vizag Zone to Hyderabad have been transferred/repatriated. (Tirupati-14, Guntur-4 and Vizag I & II    23).

It is learnt that minutes of Committee of Commissioners for examining and recommending exemptions from IZT transfer  to Vizag Zone on rotation and repatriation from Vizag Zone to Hyderabad Zone on grounds as per the IZT Policy,2013 have not yet been finalised. It is learnt that all Commissioners of CoC are likely to meet CC-Hyderabad today to consider and finalize all the requests. After minutes are finalized, orders are likely to be issued before 20-5-2013. It is expected that around 30 Superintendents have to be transferred from Hyderabad Zone on rotation to Vizag Zone during this AGT,2013.

STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS:

The proposed Bill which seeks further to amend the Constitution ,   inter alia ,  provides for-

Before concluding:

The Bill is under examination of the ‘Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance'. The main concern appears to be that it should not alter or destroy the “basic feature” of the Constitution. The basic features include “The principles of separation of power” and “Federalism”.

The doctrine of “basic feature” was introduced in 1973 by the Supreme Court in Kesavananda's case [ Kesavananda Bharti v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461] and was re-affirmed in Minerva Mills Case [ Minerva mills v. Union of India, AIR 1980 SC – the basic structure or basic features of the existing constitution cannot be amended through the process of amendment as provided in Art. 368. Now position is that any amendment of the Constitution is liable to be interfered with by the Court on the ground that it affects one or other of the basic features of the constitution.

BUT hoping against all odds…GST will come in very near future.

And so, the GST Constitution Amendment Bill is certainly A STEP FORWARD in this direction.

By R N JHA   – TIOL

Main article is published in TIOL

Dear friends,

1. The clarification issued on ACP vs time scale offset is attached herewith.

2. CR is with Expenditure. The issue of its early clearance was raised before the Expenditure Minister on 09.05.13 and he assured of doing the needful.

3. The pay arrears since 1986 at par with the Inspectors of CBI & IB case (CWP No. 13471/08) pending in Jabalpur High Court was discussed with the advocate handing over the available relevant documents to him. He opined that we should also intervene in the matter from the side of Superintendents Asn and asked for some more records which will be provided to him accordingly. After studying all the documents/records, he will prepare the case. It was last updated on the High Court site in 08/12.

Love,

Ravi

As per available information, the details of number of sanctioned posts, number in position and vacancies in Central Government posts as on 1st March, 2011 was as under:

Details of vacancy position in respect of reserved posts and details of backlog vacancies in Central Government Departments is not centrally maintained. A Special Recruitment Drive was launched in 2008 to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies of Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST)/ Other Backward Classes (OBC), which continued till 31.03.2012.The details of recruitment/ appointments made during the drive were as under:

The vacancies are filled as per the provisions of the Recruitment Rules and if Recruitment Rules permit lateral entry, the backlog vacancies may also be filled through the lateral entry route.

This was stated by Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office in written reply to a question by Shri Ashok Kumar.

pib