Highlights of the Railway Budget for 2011-12

* No hike in passenger fare and freight rates.

* Earnings for 2010-11 set to exceed Rs.1 lakh crore.

* A separate sports cadre to be created.

* Highest ever Plan outlay of Rs. 57, 630 crore proposed for Railways.

* Rs.10,000 crore to be raised through railway bonds.

* Scholarship for Girl child of Group-D railway employees increased to Rs.1200 per month.

* Recruitment for 1.75 lakh vacancies of Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ including to fill up backlog of SC/ST initiated, 16,000 ex-servicemen to be inducted by March 2011.

* Medical facilities extended to dependent parents of the Railway employees.

* Decided to set-up rail-based industries.

* Passing through a difficult phase; 97 percent increase in expenditure in 2010-11 due to implementation of Sixth Pay Commission report.

* Loss of Rs.3,500 crore in 2010-11.

* Ten-year backlog of 1.75 lakh jobs being addressed; 16,000 ex-servicemen to be given jobs in railways.

* Safety first priority; accident rate has come down.

* Anti-collision device, successful in North West Frontier Railway, to be extended to three more zonal railways.

* Railways always been a soft target but law and order a state subject. If railways are blocked in one region, this has a snowballing effect in other parts of the country.

* Will add 180 km of rail lines in 2011-12.

* All-India security helpline set up.* New Durantos to be run on Allahabad-Mumbai, Pune-Ahmedabad, Sealdah-Puri, Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, Madurai-Chennai routes, among others.

* Rail linkage to Gujarat from Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor.

* Integrated suburban network to be set up in Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad and other cities; suburban system of Hyderabad to be strengthened.

* Mumbai suburban system's EMU coaches to be increased from nine to 12.

* Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojna to be launched.

* Industrial park to be set up in Nandigram, West Bengal.

* Railways to set up factory in Jammu and Kashmir.

* To set up Metro coach factory at Singur, West Bengal.

* First coach from Rae Bareli factory to roll out in next three months.

* Work on wagon factory in Orissa to begin after land is acquired.

* Manipur capital Imphal to be soon connected to railway network.

* Centre for excellence in software to be set up at Darjeeling.

* Fund to be created for socially desirable projects.

* Central Organistaion for Project Implemtaiton created; will create accountability for nonperformance.

* 20 additional hostels for children of railway employees to be set up.

* Work on upgrading 442 stations to be completed by March 31.

* Decision to start pilot projects to give shelter to homeless people living along the tracks in Mumbai.

* Multi-purpose smart card to be introduced for all-India travel.* Airport-like trolleys to be provided at more stations.

* 56 new Express Trains, 3 new Shatabdis and 9 Duronto trains to be introduced.

* Upgraded class of air conditioned travel to be introduced shortly.

* To adopt modern technology through centres of academic excellence.

* 2011-12 declared ‘Year of Green Energy’ for Railways.

* Age for senior citizen's concession reduced to 58 from 60.

* Concession for physically handicapped and gallantry award winners for travel in Rajdhani and Shatabdi expresses.

* 50 percent concession for mediapersons with families to be increased from once to twice a year.

* AC Double Decker services on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes.

* New Super AC Class to be introduced.

Performance-based incentive for Central Govt staff from next FY

Employees belonging to 62 of central government departments could may receive performance-based incentive, over and above their existing salaries, from as early as the next financial year. The incentive will be based on the department’s scorecard in meeting yearly targets committed by their respective secretaries and ministers as part of the results-framework documents (RFD) system.

The committee of secretaries looking into performance-based incentive for government employees is said to have already zeroed in on a formula that offers a secretary-level officer an incentive up to 40% of the basic salary, provided his department has met 100% RFD targets. A scorecard of 70% and less in meeting RFD targets would however attract zero incentive. However, no penalty will be imposed on the non-performing officers.

The secretaries’ panel, headed by the Cabinet secretary, has already completed three crucial meetings and is looking to finalise its recommendations in time to enable performance-linked salaries in the coming financial year.For a secretary-level officer, the incentive is proposed to be 15% of cost savings (budgeted expenditure minus actual expenditure) by the department multiplied by its composite score less 70, divided by 30.

The incentive will be higher with each passing year. In other words, secretary of a department that meets 100% RFD targets for a year would get 20% performance-based incentive in the first three years, 30% in the next three years and 40% between the sixth and ninth year. A 70% scorecard would however attract no incentive.

For a joint secretary, the incentive will be sum of 30% of departmental composite score and 70% of divisional composite score. Since the incentive will be paid from cost savings of the department resulting from improved performance, there will be no extra burden on the exchequer. The government, incidentally, is not in favour of penalising the non-performing officers.

The reasoning being that not getting any incentive, or absence of recognition, would be punishment enough for the under-performers. With the committee of secretaries also planning to lay down the condition that performance-linked incentive will accrue to only those departments that have submitted RFDs for two consecutive years, the key five departments of PMO , home, finance, defence, external affairs who are still not covered by the RFD system will not qualify for the incentive.

READ MORE NEWS--http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/performance-based-incentive-for-central-govt-staff-from-next-fy/articleshow/7536963.cms

Will the Retirement age of central government employees go up from 60 to 62?

 

As we heard every time before the budget session of parliament, this time also a rumor about raising the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 62  is spreading here and there among the central government employees. May be the officers at the verge of retirement be happy about this rumor. Otherwise there is no reason to be happy about this rumor.. As India is having 51% of people below the age of 25 years , it is not a good news to millions of jobless people. Sources close to the trade union movements and Federations told that there is no such proposal with the government since none of the workers federations have demanded it.

In 2009, The Manmohan Singh government was serious in weighing the pros and cons of increasing the retirement age for government employees from 60 to 62 years.That time it was believed that the finance ministry had prepared a detailed note on the issue and sent it to the prime minister's office (PMO)  But the government shelved the idea, largely because of fears that a higher retirement age would adversely impact employment generation and create resentment in the bureaucracy because of blocked promotional avenues. At that time, it was the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) that was asked by the PMO to study the issue and prepare a report.

The BJP led National Democratic Alliance government had raised the retirement age from 58 to 60, in 1998, a move that benefitted 90,000 government servants and 50,000 defence personnel. At the time, the logic was: the retirement of 140,000 employees would have cost Rs 5,200 crore whereas paying salaries cost only Rs 1,493 crore.

Incase if the decision is finally taken, it will only be the third time the government will have raised the retirement age. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister to have increased the age of superannuation from 55 to 58 following the 1962 war with China. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government did it a second time in 1998.

source -http://www.vinmoney.com/