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.
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 of Inspectors
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 with Organizational 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
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.
