New Delhi: Central government employees and NGOs receiving government funds now need not declare their assets by the deadline of July 31 as Parliament today approved an amendment in the Lokpal Act to extend the timeline.

The amendment to Section 44 of the Lokpal Act was approved by voice vote by the Rajya Sabha today, a day after the Lok Sabha did the same.

While moving the bill to amend the Lokpal Act for consideration of the House, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said it is an immediate necessity and the provision will be examined in detail by a Parliamentary Standing Committee which will possibly submit its report before next session of Parliament.

During a brief discussion, the Opposition asked the government to adopt this law without any dilution.

Naresh Agrawal of Samajwadi Party said he was opposed to the Lokpal Act as this is not good for democracy and constitution. “Can the country’s Prime Minister be dishonest and Lokpal be honest,” he asked.

Replying to the concerns raised by the members, Singh said: “There is no intention to dilute or to delay the Lokpal Act. The government is committed to implement this law in letter and spirit”.

He also said the message should not go out that members of this House have joined hands to prevent declaration of their assets.

“Under the People Representation Act, what we declare is more than enough, regardless of the fact that we have Lokpal Act or not,” Singh said, adding that exercise to amend this Act has been done in good faith and is only to extend the deadline with only two days left. It gives relief to 50 lakh government employees.

The amendment pertains to Section 44 of the Lokpal Act which deals with declaration of assets and provision of making the assets public, he said.

As per the rules notified under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013, every public servant shall file declaration, information and annual returns pertaining to his assets and liabilities as well as for his spouse and dependent children on March 31 every year or on or before July 31 of that year.

In April, the government had extended the date of filing returns by public servants from April 15 to July 31. This is the fifth extension in the deadline since the Act came into force in January 2014.

As per rules, organisations receiving more than Rs 1 crore in government grants and donations above Rs 10 lakh from abroad fall under the ambit of Lokpal.

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New Delhi: A section of public sector bank employees today deferred its proposed two-day nationwide strike from tomorrow following a retrain order from the Delhi High Court.

“In view of Delhi High Court restrain order our strike on July 12 and 13 stands deferred,” All India Bank Employees’ Association General Secretary C H Venkatachalam said.

Earlier, the employee union had announced to go on strike to protest against the proposed merger of SBI associates and privatisation of IDBI Bank.

All India Bank Officers’ Association and State Sector Bank Employees’ Association had also announced their support to the strike.

In the event of the strike, normal banking operations could have been affected on July 12 and 13.

The high court in its order on a plea of State Bank of Patiala and four other subsidiary banks of SBI restrained State Sector Bank Employees Association (SSBEA) and All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) from proceeding ahead with the two-day strike till the next date of hearing.

The HC listed the matter for further hearing on July 20.

The five associate lenders of SBI are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad.

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The tenure of the committee formed on implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme has been extended by six months upto the middle of December this year.

The government recently amended the gazette notification issued last year under which the committee headed by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice (Retd) L Narasimha Reddy was scheduled to submit its report by June 14.

With the extension, the implementation of OROP may take more time as the panel can submit its report by December 14, official sources said.

The government had announced implementation of OROP on November 7, 2015 to benefit over 25 lakh ex-servicemen and war widows. The OROP mandates payment of uniform pension to the armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, which implies that bridging the gap between the rate of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals.

The other Terms of Reference of the Committee will continue which include measures for the removal of anomalies that may arise in the implementation of the OROP as notified by the government.

The panel is also looking into the measures for the removal of anomalies that may arise out of inter-services issues of the three forces due to implementation of OROP besides implications on service matters.

The Committee is examining all other matter referred to it by the central government on implementation of the OROP or related issues.

In making its recommendations, the Committee shall take into account the financial impact of its recommendations, as per its Terms of Reference.

The panel, if necessary, may give interim reports to the government on any of the matters related to its terms of reference.

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New Delhi: Ayush ministry may request the Union government to declare the International Yoga Day, which falls on June 21, as a public holiday if such a demand comes, Ayush minister Shripad Naik said today.

Speaking ahead of the second IYD celebrations, he said that his ministry would consider such a demand and request Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of promoting a practice with multiple benefits to the masses.

“It is not needed, nobody has demanded that. Last year, also no such demand came. But if the demand comes, I will request the Prime Minister to do so.

“Yoga’s time is early morning. It will go on around 8 am.

There is no need of a holiday but if there is a demand for that, we will request the government,” Naik said during National Health Editors’ Conference on the theme – ‘Yoga for Holistic Health Recent Researches’ here.

June 21 this year falls on Tuesday while last year, it fell on a Sunday.

He also dismissed the controversy related to chanting of Om during the event and it has not been made compulsory.

“There is always some opposition whenever some good work is done. There is no opposition this year to it. We have not made it compulsory. Without OM, yoga cannot be complete. We have made those people who are opposing understand this and it seems they have understood,” he said.

A fresh controversy had broke out recently over the UGC’s directive asking universities and colleges to follow Ayush ministry’s yoga protocol that begins with chanting of ‘Om’ and some Sanskrit sholakas during Yoga Day celebrations on June 21.

Both the government and BJP, however had insisted that last year’s protocol has been maintained and no changes have been made. “There is no compulsion to chant ‘Om’,” the Ministry had earlier said.

Asked about the controversy which had erupted over performing of ‘Suryanamaskar asana, the minister said that this particular ‘asana’ had not been kept last year and this year, it will not be performed.

“The Surya namashkar asana, last year also we had not taken it. Its a complex exercise. It is difficult to do in 45 minutes and for people who are new to the exercise.

Therefore we have not kept this one,” Naik said.

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Government is implementing the Digital India programme to transform the country into a digitally empowered and knowledge economy so that various services like passport, pension and driving licenses could be delivered online, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said one of the primary focus areas of Digital India is Pillar 5: eKranti – electronic delivery of services.

“e-Kranti aims to ensure a government wide transformation by delivering all services electronically to the citizens through integrated and interoperable systems via multiple modes while ensuring efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs,” he said during Question Hour.

In e-Kranti, 44 Mission Mode Projects (MMP) – 13 central, 17 state and 14 integrated MMPs – are being implemented. Under the 25 operational MMPs 222 services are being provided. More than 192 e-transactions have been reported since January 1, 2016.

“Under e-Kranti, the government of India has made concerted effort to make offline government services to be also delivered through online mode, ensuring that all citizens would have access to them, thereby improving the quality of basic governance on an unprecedented scale,” he said.

Prasad said services being provided online include income tax, passport, immigration, core banking, pension grievance redressal, courts, police, RTI, utility payments, licenses, social welfare schemes, agriculture, municipality, land record, vehicle registration, driving license, public distribution system etc.

The Minister said so far more than 100 crore Aadhaar enrollments have been processed and that resulted in extensive use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for subsidies and saving of Rs 21,000 crore.

Prasad said around 1.99 lakh common service centres have been made operational and 1,40,751 KMs OFC pipe laid and over 1,12 lakh KMs optical fibre laid for connectivity to 50,465 gram panchayats to deliver services to citizens in rural areas.

Rural tele-density has crossed 50.09 per cent. Guidelines for spectrum sharing and trading and liberalisation of spectrum have been issued. More than 2 crore passport applications have been processed, he said.

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Over 61,000 public grievances related to a range of issues are received by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) every month, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said today.

The grievances include concerns related to employees, quality of service, amenities, police, allegation of corruption or malpractices, labour issues, education, land-related problem and financial services.

According to the data available on the online Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), the average number of grievances received every month in PMO is 61,919, said the Minister of State in the PMO in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

There are 11,028 grievances pertaining to Delhi, he said.

The total number of grievances disposed of and pending as on May 5, 2016 were 7,18,241 and 2,72,466 respectively, the minister said.

The government has established CPGRAMS to facilitate citizens to lodge their grievances from anywhere, anytime for redressal.

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Customers won’t be able to conduct bank transactions at branches for 4 days in a row this week as all banks will be closed from Thursday, although the lenders assure that they will fully load ATMs for meeting people’s cash needs.

Thursday will be a holiday for celebrating the Holi festival, followed by Good Friday and the weekend.

Banks are closed on second and fourth Saturdays every month. Hence, 4 continuous offs for the bank employees.

Banks are trying to ensure that ATMs remain operational during these days so that people don’t have any cash problem, a senior public sector bank official said.

They are trying to put higher denomination notes in ATM machines to ensure meeting the cash demand, the official added.

IDBI Bank may be closed for an extra day if the strike call given by a section of officers and employees of the bank on March 28 (Monday) materialises.

The staffers, belonging to the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), have given the strike call to protest against the government move to privatise IDBI Bank.

The government owns around 80 per cent stake in the bank.

In Budget 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the government was open to bringing down its stake in IDBI Bank to below 50 per cent.

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In a major policy decision, West Bengal Government today allowed paternity-cum-child care leave of 30 days for its male employees which can be availed either during child birth or until their children turn 18.

Announcing this at the State Secretariat Nabanna, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the decision was taken at a cabinet meeting today to enable male employees to discharge their parental responsibilities.

The state government had earlier allowed maternity leave for 180 days and child care leave for 730 days to female employees of the state government and Panchayat Raj, besides other local bodies, boards, corporations, undertakings, companies, state aided universities, sponsored and non-government aided schools and colleges, Banerjee said.

The scheme would be implemented with immediate effect, she added.

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In her address to the first limited edition of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, Swaraj said it has been decided that women workers will be allowed to go to Gulf countries for employment only through government agencies to ensure they are not duped by recruiting agents or firms.

The PBD, webcast by almost all Indian Missions and Posts, was organised for the first time by External Affairs Ministry (MEA) after the government’s decision to merge Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) with it.

Earlier MOIA used to host the event. January 9 was chosen as the day for PBD as it was on this day in 1915 that Mahatma Gandhi, the “greatest Pravasi”, returned home from South Africa to lead India’s freedom struggle.

Asking the diaspora to participate in government’s various flagship programmes including Skill India, Digital India and Clean Ganga initiatives, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the Aadhaar card scheme to be extended to NRIs.

“So far Aadhar card has been given to those Indians who live in India. It is not for non-resident Indians. But you will be happy to know that the Prime Minister wants the card to be given to the NRIs the way it is issued to people living in India.

“He even wants it for OCI (Overseas Citizens of India card) holders. The matter is under our consideration. No decision has been taken as discussions on it are underway. I hope soon you will hear about it,” Swaraj said during an interaction following her address.

The government has so far issued Aadhaar cards to over 92 crore citizens. Under the programme, every citizen is to be provided with a 12-digit unique identification number for which biometric information is collected.

On restricting women from going to Gulf countries through the recruiting agencies, she said the decision has been taken to stop them from getting duped.

“We will send women only through government agencies,” Swaraj said during an interactive session with Indian missions abroad.

Calling upon the diaspora to be part of the India growth story, she said “It is time for you to come back to India.”

Effusive in praise of the Prime Minister, Swaraj said India’s engagement with the overseas Indians has increased manifold because of his constant endevour to reach out to the community. Swaraj also mentioned Modi’s Madison Square address in the US and at the Wembly in London.

“Your achievements in the countries of your adoption are a matter of pride… It is our responsibility to protect you and take care of you. Indeed, we are you and you are us,” she said.

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Central government employees who have children suffering from Thalassemia and Haemophilia will be exempted from routine transfers and will not be asked to take voluntary retirement on refusing such postings, as per the new rules announced today by the Centre.

The matter regarding the scope of ‘disabled’ has been examined by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in consultation with the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

Considering the fact that the child suffering from Thalassemia and Haemophilia requires constant caregiver support and it would be imperative for government employees to take care of their child on continuous basis, it has been decided to include Thalassemia and Haemophilia in the category of disabled child, the new rules issued by the DoPT said.

At present, employees with kids suffering from blindness or low vision, hearing impairment, locomotor disability or cerebral palsy, leprosy, mental retardation, mental illness, multiple disabilities and autism are spared from routine transfers.

A government employee with a disabled child serves as the main caregiver and any displacement of such employee will have a bearing on the systemic rehabilitation of the child since the new environment or set up could prove to be a hindrance for rehabilitation process, as per the existing policy.

“Therefore, a government servant who is also a caregiver of disabled child may be exempted from the routine exercise of transfer or rotational transfer subject to the administrative constraints,” DoPT Office Memorandum No.42011/3/2014-Estt.(Res) dated January 5 said.

Upbringing and rehabilitation of disabled child requires financial support. Making the government employee to choose voluntary retirement on the pretext of routine transfer or rotation transfer would have adverse impact on the rehabilitation process of the child, the DoPT policy says and exempts such employees from routine transfers and seeking voluntary retirements.

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