Pay hike for KSCB staff

Pay hike for KSCB staff



The State government has issued orders revising the pay scales of employees of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank with retrospective effect from April 1, 2007.



Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Cooperation and Coir Development Minister G. Sudhakaran said the government had accepted the pay revision report of a panel headed by the Principal Secretary (Cooperatives), according to which the minimum upward revision for the last grade employee will be Rs.1,500 and that of Chief General Manager will be Rs.11,000. The KSCB will have to incur an additional burden of Rs.18 lakh a month or Rs. 2.16 crore a year. The Board of Directors had been authorised to work out the details of arrear payment.



He said the existing running master scale of Rs.6,000-37,700 had been revised to Rs.7,825-50,450. The following are the revised pay scales for various categories of employees with the existing scale in brackets: Peon/attender 7,825-20,975 (6,000-14,775), Clerk: 9,625-28,375 (7,375-19,975) Junior Assistant: 11,750-32,050 (8,925-24,775) Accounts Officer: 14,375-38,350 (10,975- 29,300), Deputy General Manager: 20,975-48,950 (15,925-36,575) Chief General Manager: 25,075-50,450 (19,250-37,700).



Employees would get 6.25 per cent fitment and 24 per cent dearness allowance along with the basic pay from the date of opting for the new scale or from April 1, 2007. The pay revision committee's recommendation for one increment for 10 years of service and two increments for 20 years service also have been accepted.



Employees would get a house rent allowance of 10 per cent of the salary, subject to a limit of Rs.2,000, besides three stagnation increments. The commission's recommendation for higher grade promotion for the sub-staff category depending on the years of service has also been accepted.



The government had sanctioned special pay for qualified employees ranging between Rs.500 to 700, over and above the pay committee's recommendation with a view to induct professionalism in its services.



The Minister pointed out that the government had sanctioned the pay revision even though the KSCB was going through difficult times. Bank Chairman Koliyakode Krishnan Nair said the bank was in the red mainly on account of the inhospitable attitude of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which had failed to extend refinance for farm loans. Despite this, the bank had advanced farm loans, suffering loss in interest component to the tune of Rs. 12 crore.





source : The Hindu

Insurance policies to be available at post offices

Insurance policies to be available at post offices



Post offices can now distribute insurance products with IRDA, allowing each circle of the Department of Post (DOP) to act as a corporate agent of insurers.




"Each Circle of India post should be treated a separate unit in order to grant independent corporate agent licence with various insurers," insurance regulator IRDA said while granting permission to postal circles to distribute insurance products.



It, however, said that in the case of metropolitan areas, head of Circle may approach IRDA for prior approval of further division in the circle as separate units to obtain licence to act as corporate agent in view of the large population.



The DOP has divided the whole country into 22 postal circles for providing postal services.



The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) allowed each circle to tie up with two non-life insurance companies, two life insurance companies, one agricultural insurance company and one stand alone Health Insurance Company for this purpose.



Corporate agents act as insurance agent for insurers and procure business on behalf of the insurance companies through its executives.



The sector watchdog had last month sought views from insurers for granting corporate agency licence to the DoP to promote financial inclusion.



An expert committee on 'Harnessing the India Post Network for Financial Inclusion' had earlier recommended that the low cost platform of India Post be used for strategic partners like microfinance institutions (MFIs), mutual funds and insurance companies.



It also suggested expanding the role of Post Office Savings Bank as an agent of Ministry of Finance to play a larger and direct role in financial inclusion.



However, IRDA has disallowed the head office of India Post to engage in the distribution of the insurance products.



"In its individual capacity the Head/Corporate Office of India Post shall not obtain license to act as Corporate Agent of any insurance company. The Head /Corporate Office of India Posts shall not engage in the distribution of insurance products of any insurance company registered with IRDA in any other capacity," it added.

Employee can be sacked even if released on probation: SC

Employee can be sacked even if released on probation: SC




The Supreme Court has held that an employee can be dismissed for moral turpitude even if he or she is released under the Probation of Offenders Act after being convicted for an offence.



"The conviction in a criminal case is one part of the case and release on probation is another. Therefore, grant of benefit of the provisions of Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, only enables the delinquent not to undergo the sentence on showing his good conduct during the period of probation.



"In case, after being released, the delinquent commits another offence, benefit of Probation of Offenders' Act, 1958, gets terminated and the delinquent can be made liable to undergo the sentence.





Source: PIB

Income Tax Department Celebrates 150 years

Income Tax Department Celebrates 150 years of Income tax in India Tomorrow: FM to Release Revised Citizen Charter of I-T Department on the Occasion



The Income Tax department is celebrating 150 years of income tax in India. The Governor General of India accorded to the bill levying the tax, introduced by James Wilson, the first Finance Member in Council, on 24th July 1860. The 150 years of income tax, spanning 3 centuries, have witnessed tremendous global changes. The Income Tax department has traveled this journey by mobilizing resources, from a meager Rs.1.33 crore in 1860-61 to about Rs.380 thousand crore in 2009-10. These revenues have constituted a vital component in the resources used by the Government of India to lift the people out of abject poverty, disease and misery and propel India into the frontiers of strong and self-reliant nations. In the 150th year, the Income Tax department rededicates itself to the people of India with the avowed objective of mobilizing optimum resources to build a modern, developed, vibrant and prosperous nation.



At the close of the first decade of this century, the role of the Income Tax department has radically altered and needs redefining. The department needs to address the rising expectations of taxpayers through innovative use of technology and modern management skills to ensure equity, transparency and efficiency in delivery systems. The Citizen’s Charter 2007 has, accordingly, been revised and will be released by the Hon’ble Finance Minister in a function on 24th July 2010 at 3:30 PM, FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi. The Charter reflects the best endeavour of the Department and is expected to meet the aspirations of the people of India.



A short documentary film on the journey of 150 years of income tax, anchored by actor Om Puri, will be shown and the third volume of the book “Let Us Share” will be released during the function.



The soul of the country speaks through its art. On this historic occasion, an artists’ workshop was recently organized in Kolkata to ponder and reflect on creativity in the field of resource mobilization. Several eminent artists, including Dhiraj Chowdhury, Ganesh Haloi, Prakash Karmakar, Jogen Choudhury, Wasim Kapoor and Sunil Das joined artists in the Department, Bratati Mukherjee and Prasanna Kumar Dash, in bringing forth 40 paintings of outstanding quality. An exhibition of these paintings, along with other expressions of creative outpouring by personnel of the department, will be organized at AIFACS, New Delhi from 25th to 30th July 2010. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Smt. Suvra Mukherjee in the company of several other renowned artists of different parts of the country on 24th July at 6:30 PM

PIB

Medical negligence case; SC awards Rs one crore compensation

The Supreme Court has awarded a massive compensation of Rs one crore to a software engineer who suffered permanent disability due to medical negligence at a govt -owned hospital in Andhra Pradesh.



This is the first time such a huge compensation has been awarded by the Supreme Court in a medical negligence by way of enhancing the Rs 15.5 lakh awarded by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commssion.

The victim Prashant Dhanaka had argued his own case brilliantly in the Supreme Court which recorded appreciation for the same.

The victim, who went to the hospital for removal of a tumor on September 19, 1990, in chest cavity, was negligently operated upon by doctors resulting in the medical condition known as "paraplegia" which rendered him paralytic for entire life.

The disability, which struck Dhanaka when he was just 20 years old, made him incapable of even performing his personal chores necessiating a constant attendant, besides making him invalid for a married life.

A three-judge bench of Justices B N Aggrawal, G S Singhvi and H S Bedi, after perusual of the records, came to the conclusion that Dhanaka had suffered the disability mainly on account of negligence.

"We have no other option but to conclude that the attending doctors were seriously remiss in the conduct of the operation and it was on account of this neglect the paraplegia had set in," the apex court observed.

The apex court, while awarding the compensation, took into consideration various factors like possible future income of Dhanaka, cutting short of a brilliant career, loss of possible marital life, future expenditure on attendants and medicines, besides the huge emotional, mental and physical trauma that would constantly affect him and the family.

The apex court said the Rs one crore compensation should be awarded at the rate of six percent interest from March 1999 when the NCDRC had passed the original compensation award.
"Support necessary for a severely handicapped person comes at an enormous price, physical, financial and emotional, not only on the victim but even more so on his family and the attendant, that saps their energy and destroys the equanimity," the bench said.

The apex court apppreciated the manner in which the victim appeared in person and argued his case brilliantly without any rancour.

"We must record that though a sense of deep injury was discernible through his protracted stugggle while confined to a wheel chair, he remained unruffled and behaved with quiet dignity, pleading his own case bereft of any rancour or invective for those who in his perception had harmed him", the apex court said.

The apex court, however, noted that Dhanaka had made an exagerrated and unreasonable claim of Rs seven crore which cannot be awarded by it.

Source: DDI News