MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JOINT SECRETARY (IC) WITH NODAL OFFICERS HELD ON 2ND FEBRUARY, 2016
A meeting of all the Nodal Officers of
various Ministries/Departments, who have been appointed to interact with
the Implementation Cell in connection with the processing of the
recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission, was held on
02.02.2016. Joint Secretary (IC), Department of Expenditure, presided
over the meeting.
2. While explaining the background and
the context in which the meeting of Nodal Officers was held, it was
brought out in the meeting that after the receipt of the report of the
7th Central Pay Commission on 19.11.2015, Ministry of Finance initiated a
proposal to setup an appropriate mechanism to process the
recommendations of the Commission. With the approval of the Cabinet, an
Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) headed by the Cabinet
Secretary has been set up on 27.1.2016 to screen the recommendations and
to firm up the conclusions for approval of the Cabinet. An
Implementation Cell (IC), as a dedicated and focused wing in the
Department of Expenditure (DoE) has been created to work as the
Secretariat for the E-CoS.
3. As the recommendations of the
Commission relate to various Ministries/ Departments, their
views/comments would be essential to process the matter for submitting
the same before the E-CoS. JS(Pers), D/o Expenditure wrote a d.o. letter
to the Secretaries of various Departments on 21.11.2015, wherein all
the Departments were requested to formulate their views/comments on the
recommendations of the Commission pertaining to them after taking into
account the representations of the Staff Associations and also to
nominate a Joint Secretary level Nodal Officer for interaction with the
Implementation Cell. While a number of Ministries/Departments have sent
their comments and nominated their Nodal Officers, the comments received
from some Ministries are simply in the nature of forwarding the
representations of the Staff Associations without their comments.
4. In the above background, JS(IC)
explained that there was a need for all the Ministries/Departments to
furnish their comments in a structured format so that their collation
and analysis could be placed before E-CoS in a systemic manner.
Accordingly, JS(IC) impressed upon the following action points to be
acted upon by the Nodal Officers to enable an expeditious processing of
the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission:
Departments who have not yet nominated a Nodal Officer, should do it within the next 2 days.
(ii) To be ensured that Nodal Officers are not changed midway, unless extremely unavoidable.
(iii) Nodal Officers may get acquainted
with the recommendations of the Commission as specifically applicable to
their Departments. Nodal Officers to find out which Wing/Office
(attached or subordinate or UT) is concerned with the recommendations of
the Commission. The mechanism of Nodal Officers should also be put in
place in attached/subordinate/UTs so that the comments of such offices
could be properly coordinated at the level of the Department concerned
without any further delay.
(iv) The comments of the attached/subordinate offices/UTs should be compiled by Nodal Officers at the Department level itself.
(v) Nodal Officers to take note of any
representation or demand of the Staff Association under the
administrative purview of their Department. Nodal Officers to ascertain
the views/comments of the concerned office on the recommendation of the
Commission in the light of the representation /demands raised by the
Staff Association.
(vi) In case, there is any need for
consultation with the Staff Association at the level of the Department,
the same may be done as per the assessment of the Department.
(vii) Thereafter, the formal
views/comments of the Department should be sent to the Implementation
Cell (IC) on the recommendations of the Commission, which are
specifically and directly related to that Department.
(viii) In case, the Department is of the
view that any recommendation which are specifically related to their
Department, need any modification, adequate justification in clear-cut
terms should be brought out while sending the comments to the
Implementation Cell (IC).
(ix) In case of any modification, the
extra financial implications (per annum) over the recommendation of the
Commission should be clearly indicated.
(x) If no modification of the
recommendations of the Commission is suggested, approval of the
Secretary of the Department should be obtained before sending the
recommendations to the Implementation Cell (IC). if, however, any
modification is suggested, approval of the Minister should be obtained.
(xi) While the views/comments of the
Departments on the recommendations of the Commission directly and
specifically applicable to that Department are mandatory, a Department
is free to offer views/comments on the recommendations which are of
general nature or concerning other Departments.
(xii) Besides sending the comments/views
of the Department in the running format, the same should also be sent
to the Implementation Cell (IC)in the `prescribed proforma’ within two
weeks. The soft copies of the same should also be sent through email.
The email id of JS(IC) is : jsic-cpc@nic. in
(xiii) Nodal Officers shoud regularly
keep a watch on the website of the Finance Ministry at the link
http://www.finmin.nic.in/the ministry/dept expenditure/
notification/7cpc/index.asp. E-mails should also be checked regularly
for the purpose. The updates/further action to be taken shall be posted
there to facilitate quick action.
5. Apart from the above action points,
it was also felt that sub-groups may be formed after the receipt of
comments from the Ministries/Departments to accord focused consideration
to certain specific issues, if necessary.
6. Besides above, after detailed deliberations, the Nodal Officers also agreed to the following :
(i) Even if the Department has no comments, it should send a response, saying that it has `Nil Report’.
(ii) While certain
Departments have already given their comments, these comments would be
sent again in the ‘prescribed format’ and in accordance with the points
brought out in para 4 above.
(iii) Nodal officers
would ensure that the comments of their Departments on all the
recommendations of the Commission and also on the representations
received so far from the Staff Associations are forwarded to
Implementation Cell (IC) in the prescribed format in a consolidated
fashion and not in piece-meal within next two weeks.
(iv) If a
representation was made by a Staff Association before the 7th Central
Pay Commission and the Commission after due diligence has not accepted
the demand made therein, the same matter should normally not be
considered at this stage. However, if Departments consider that the
issues are of such nature that they require consideration at this stage
also, then they may give their comments with full justifications to the
Implementation Cell (IC).
7. With the above discussions, the meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.
