The LDC examination for filling up of the posts of MTS pertaining to the vacancies of 2009 will be held on 10.03.2013 (Sunday) from 10 AM to 11 30AM

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2013 Passed by Parliament

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2012 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 26^th February 2013. Lok Sabha has passed it in September 2012.

Sexual Harassment at workplace is a violation of women’s right to gender equality, life and liberty. It creates an insecure and hostile work environment, which discourages women’s participation in work, thereby adversely affecting their economic empowerment and the goal of inclusive growth. However, there is no domestic law to address this issue except a few provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Supreme Court Guidelines in the case of Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan. The increasing work participation rate of women has made it imperative that a comprehensive legislation focusing on prevention of sexual harassment as well as providing a redressal mechanism be enacted.

The salient features of the Act are as follows:

(i)        It defines “sexual harassment at the workplace” in a comprehensive manner, in keeping with the definition laid down in the Vishaka judgment, and broadening it further to cover circumstances of implied or explicit promise or threat to a woman’s employment prospects or creation of hostile work environment or humiliating treatment, which can affect her health or safety.

(ii)       The definition of “aggrieved woman”, who will get protection under the Act is extremely wide to cover all women, irrespective of her age or employment status, whether in the organised or unorganised sectors, public or private and covers clients, customers and domestic workers as well.

(iii) While the “workplace” in the Vishaka guidelines is confined to the traditional office set-up where there is a clear employer-employee relationship, the Act goes much further to include organisations, department, office, branch unit etc in the public and private sector, organized and unorganized, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, sports institutes, stadiums, sports complex and any place visited by the employee during the course of employment including the transportation.

(iv)      Definition of employee covers regular/temporary/ad hoc/daily wage employees, whether for remuneration or not and can also include volunteers. The definition of employer includes the head of the Government department/organisation/institution/office/branch/unit, the person responsible for management/supervisions/control of the workplace, the person discharging contractual obligations with respect to his/her employees and in relation to a domestic worker the person who benefits from that employment.

(v) The redressal mechanism provided in the Act is in the form of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and Local Complaints Committee (LCC). All workplaces employing 10 or more than 10 workers are mandated under the Act to constitute an ICC. The ICC will be a 4 member committee under the Chairpersonship of a senior woman employee and will include 2 members from amongst the employees preferably committed to the cause of women or has experience in social work/legal knowledge and includes a third party member (NGO etc) as well.

(vi)  Complaints from workplaces employing less than 10 workers or when the complaint is against the employer will be looked into by the LCC. A  District Officer notified under the Act will constitute the LCC at the district level. LCC will also look into complaints from domestic workers.

(vii) LCC will be a five member committee comprising of a chairperson to be nominated from amongst eminent women in the field of social work or committed to the cause of women, one member from amongst women working in block/taluka/tehsil/manicipality in the district, two members of whom at least one shall be a woman to be nominated from NGOs committed to the cause of women or a person familiar with the issues related to sexual harassment provided that at least one of the nominees should preferably have a background in law or legal knowledge. The concerned officer dealing with the social welfare or women and child development shall be an ex officio member.

(viii)  A complaint of sexual harassment can be filed within a time limit of 3 months. This may be extended to another 3 months if the woman can prove that grave circumstances prevented her from doing the same.

(ix) The Act has a provision for conciliation. The ICC/LCC can take steps to settle the matter between the aggrieved woman and the respondent, however this option will be used only at the request of the woman. The Act also provides that monetary settlement shall not be made a basis of conciliation. Further, if any of the conditions of the settlement is not complied with by the respondent, the complainant can go back to the Committee who will proceed to make an inquiry. 

(x)  The Committee is required to complete the inquiry within a time period of 90 days. On completion of the inquiry, the report will be sent to the employer or the District Officer, as the case may be, they are mandated to take action on the report within 60 days.

(xi) In case the complaint has been found proved, then the Committee can recommend action in accordance with the provision of service rules applicable to the respondent or as per the rules which will be prescribed, where such service rules do not exist. The committee can also recommend deduction of an appropriate sum from the salary of the respondent or ask respondent to pay the sum. In case the respondent fails to pay such sum, district officer may be asked to recover such sum as an arrear of land revenue.

(xii) In case the allegation against the respondent has not been proved then the Committee can write to the employer/district officer that no action needs to be taken in the matter.

(xiii) In case of malicious or false complaint then the Act provides for a penalty according to the Service Rules. However, this clause has a safeguard in the form of an enquiry prior to establishing the malicious intent. Also, mere inability to prove the case will not attract penalty under this provision.

(xiv) The Act has provisions for providing reliefs to theaggrieved woman in the interim period including leave and transfer during the pendency of the inquiry.

(xv) The Act prohibits disclosure of the identity and addresses of the aggrieved woman, respondent and witnesses. However, information regarding the justice secured to any victim of sexual harassment under this Act without disclosing the identity can be disseminated.

(xvi) The Act casts a responsibility on every employer to create an environment which is free from sexual harassment. Employers are required to organize workshops and awareness programmes at regular intervals for sensitizing the employees about the provision of this legislation and display notices regarding the constitution of Internal Committee, penal consequences of sexual harassment etc.

(xvii) An employer will be liable to a fine of Rs 50,000 in case of violation of his duties under the Act and in case of subsequent violations the amount of fine will be double together with penalty in the form of cancelation of his licence, withdrawal or non-withdrawal of the registration required for carrying out his activity.

(xviii) In case of domestic worker the procedure is different considering the nature of employment. A domestic worker can approach the LCC in case of any complaint. If the complainant wishes then conciliation may be carried out. However, in other cases if the complaint is proved prima facie then the LCC can forward the complaint to the police for registering the case and taking appropriate action under the relevant provision of IPC. 

(xix) Regarding monitoring, the Act provides that the State Governments will monitor implementation and maintain data for all State Government establishments as well as private establishments in their territory. For establishments of the Central Government this duty is cast on the Government of India.  All ICCs have to submit Annual reports to the employer who inturn will submit it to the district officer. All LCCs shall submit their annual report to the district officer. The district officers will submit the report annually to the State Governments.

(xx) The Central and State Governments are mandated to develop relevant IEC and training materials and organise awareness programmes to advance the understanding of the public on the provisions of this Bill.

(xxi) The Central Government will provide financial assistance to the States to meet the expenditure of fee and allowances payable to the members of the Local Complaints Committee.

Source:-PIB

Clarification about treatment of Voter ID Card and Aadhaar Card as age proof.

SB ORDER NO-2/2013

Enhancement of limit for verification of withdrawals from Savings Accounts made at Extra Departmental Sub/Branch Post Offices and Single Handed Post Offices 

To view the original order please CLICK HERE 

HIGHLIGHTS OF RAILWAY BUDGET 2013-14

Ø  26 new passenger services, 8 DEMU services and 5 MEMU services to be introduced

Ø  Run of 57 trains to be extended

Ø  Frequency of 24 trains to be increased

Ø  First AC EMU rake to be introduced on Mumbai suburban network in 2013-14

Ø  72 additional services to be introduced in Mumbai and 18 in Kolkata

Ø  Rake length increased from 9 cars to 12 cars for 80 services in Kolkata and 30 services in Chennai

Ø  500 km new lines, 750 km doubling, 450 km gauge conversion targeted in 2013-14

Ø  First ever rail link to connect Arunachal Pradesh

Ø  Some Railway related activities to come under MGNREGA

Ø  For the first time 347 ongoing projects identified as priority projects with the committed funding

Ø  Highest ever plan outlay of Rs. 63,363 crore

Ø  Loan of Rs. 3000 crore repaid fully.

Achievement of target in POSB accounts during the financial year 2012-13.

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS, INDIA

O/o the Sr. Supdt. of Posts offices,

Bhubaneswar Division, Bhubaneswar-751009

To

          The Sr. PM, Bhubaneswar GPO,

          All the PMs/SPMs/BPMs under  BBSR Division.      

          Bhubaneswar.

         

No.  -   SB -258/ch-II/12(sub)                                                                           dated at Bhubaneswar the 25.02.2013.

Sub :-  Regarding review of performance on achievement of target in POSB accounts during the financial year 2012-13.

This is regarding achievement of target in respect of opening of new accounts for the financial year 2012-13 and in this connection please refer to this office letter No.-SB-258/ch-II/10 dtd 26/07/2012 wherein the assigned target has been mentioned and the same is reiterated below.

Year End Review of Department of Posts

Extracts from PIB Release dated 26th December, 2012

Contributing to the financial inclusion of the rural people:

(A) Wage disbursal under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA):Extensive rural postal network of the country is actively engaged in disbursal of wages of MGNREGA with high levels of efficiency. During the year 2012-13 the Post Offices disbursed about Rs 9,133 crore by October, 2012 through about 5.53 crore savings accounts of MGNREGA workers standing in the Post Offices. Thus, the Department of Posts significantly contributed towards the success of this unique social security arrangement of unprecedented scale.

(B) Financial Inclusion of Below Poverty Line (BPL Household: Department of Posts leveraged its network and outreach to financially include BPL households by targeting them for opening their savings accounts in the Post Offices and thus providing them with access to savings services. During the Year 2012-13 more than 1.53 crore households were financially included through this initiative by October, 2012.

Introduction of e-enabled services

(A) 24,969 Departmental post offices have been computerized as on date

(B) IndiaPost has introduced Remotely Managed Franking System in place of existing electronic Franking Machines. Around 5681 RMFS machines have been licensed and activated as on date.

(C) e-Post office Portal was commissioned during 2011. During the current year PLI premia payment has also been added apart from sale of philatelic material.

RPLI INCENTIVE TO IPs FOR PROPOSAL VERIFICATION

PLI Directorate vide letter No. 26-2/2009-LI dated 16-01-2013 has clarified that provisions of PLI Directorate letter no. 35017/78-LI (Vol III) dated 19.3.96 regarding admissibility of incentive to SDI/ASP for verification/scrutiny of RPLI proposals have not been superseded either the directorate letter no 26-02/2009-LI dated 18.9.2009 or any other subsequent letter.

The above clarification has been issued by PLI Directorate to clear the doubts raised by some circles consequent upon issuance of revised incentive structure for PLI/RPLI sale force. In the above letter it has been clarified that SDI/ASPs shall be paid incentive equal to 10% of the procurement commission paid to the Gramin Dak Sewaks and Gramin Dak BPM’s whose proposals are verified by such SDI/ASP. This will be limited to only the first year premium income commission earned by Gramin Dak Sewaks and Gramin Dak BPM’s on such proposals.

Now path and all hurdle to clear the pending incentive bills of SDI/ASP has been vacated and incentive will be paid for verification of RPLI proposals as was being paid in view of Directorate order no. 35-15/78-LI (Vol III) dated 19.3.96 .