IT Minister Kapilsibal Calls for Separating Regulatory Services Functions of Department of Post

IT Minister KapilSibal calls for separating regulatory services functions of Department of Post

Communications and IT Minister KapilSibal has called for restructuring of 150-year-old Department of Post by separating its regulatory and services functions to meet challenges of technological age.

"The postal department should also restructure itself to meet challenges of 21st century. The Department of Post (DoP) should look into prospect of bifurcating the ministry from the regulator and the operator, just as was done in the telecom sector," Sibal told PTI.

He said that the DoP should explore possibility of having different entities namely policy making, regulator and service provider. "No decision has been taken yet. It is all a matter of debate and dialogue at the moment," Sibal said.

DoP, which has around 5 lakh employees, is responsible for policy making, regulation and providing postal services, at present.

The over 100-year old Indian Post Office Act bars any individual or entity from delivering letters for commercial purpose. The business of private courier companies is built around delivering documents, parcels and others items which do not fall under the category of 'letter'.

Sources in the ministry said that Sibal held a meeting with DoP officials early this week on the issue of finanlisation of the National Postal Policy 2012 and asked them to prepare roadmap for restructuring as well.

They said that next meeting on the issue is expected to take place in 15 days. They said that the minister, in June, had asked DoP to set up a body to oversee the unbundling of its functions.

An independent body named Postal Development Board (PDB) will be responsible for the overall development and governance of the postal sector, they added. The PDB will also draw a road-map for unbundling of postal department functions.

The Minister had also instructed DoP to constitute a Postal Advisory Board (PAB), in line with Telecom Commission, which should have representation from Government, industry players, academics and other stakeholders, they said. The role of PAB will be to provide inputs to PDB on policy matters.

The government in 1997 created the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to regulate the sector. Under New Telecom Policy 1999, Government further restructured DoT by separating service providing function from it.

Sensitive Approach towards Women Employees

Article 16 of the Constitution of India guarantees equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State. Further, it provides that no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office under the State.

To enhance the employability of women, the Government is providing skill training to women through a network of Women Industrial Training Institutes. There are 11 National Vocational Training Institutes providing training facilities, exclusively for women in skills having high wage-employment and self-employment potential. Further there are women wings in general ITIs which are under the administrative control of respective State Governments. National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) has enhanced the percentage of reservation for women from 25% to 30% in training institutes.

Besides this, the Government has enacted the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 which provides for payment of equal remuneration to men and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature without any discrimination and also prevents discrimination against women employees while making recruitment for the same work or work of similar nature, or in any condition of service subsequent to recruitment such as promotions, training or transfer. The Government has taken several steps for creating a congenial work environment for women workers and a number of protective provisions have been incorporated in various labour laws. These include provision of crèches where a certain number of women are employed, maternity benefit and safeguards against sexual harassment of women workers at their work places, etc. With these efforts more and more women would be encouraged to take up employment. However, it is difficult to quantify the number of women likely to be benefited therefrom.

This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the LokSabha today.

Source: PIB

3.Productivity Linked Bonus for 2010-11 announced for Railway Employees

The Union Cabinet has accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Railways for payment of Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days' wages for the financial year 2010-2011 for all eligible non-gazetted Railway employees.

The financial implication of payment of 78 days' PLB to railway employees has been estimated to be Rs.1098.58 crore. The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of PLB to the eligible non-gazetted railway employees is Rs.3500/- p.m.

About 12.61 lakh non-gazetted Railway employees are likely to benefit from the decision.

Payment of PLB to eligible railway employees is made each year before the Dusshera/ Puja holidays. The decision of the Cabinet shall be implemented before the holidays for this year as well.

This will be the highest PLB payment ever to be made by Railways. PLB is based on the productivity indices reflecting the performance of the Railways and its payment is expected to motivate the employees for working towards improving the same in future.

Source: PIB