Revised entitlement of privilege passes for Railway Employees – hardship caused to certain staff of lower pay levels due to discontinuance of earlier provisions
No.I/15/2018
Dated: 30-11-2018
The Secretary(E)
Railway Board
New Delhi
Dear sir,
Sub: Revised entitlement of privilege passes for Railway Employees – hardship caused to certain staff of lower pay levels due to discontinuance of earlier provisions – reg.
Ref: (i) NFIR’s PNM Item No. 11/2013.
(ii) NFIR’s letter No. I/15/Part III dated 03/12/2015.
(iii) Railway Board’s letter No.2017/E(LR)I/NM1-3 dated 01/02/2018 to GS/NFIR.
(iv) Discussion held in the special meeting on 09/02/2018 on left over PNM Items.
Federation invites kind attention of the Railway Board to the discussions held on 09/02/2018 in the special meeting on pending PNM items ofNFIR. The list of left over items contained Item No. 11/2013 also. During discussions on the subject matter, Federation urged the Railway Board to take remedial action to review entitlement of privilege/complimentary passes to Railway employees with a view to remove hardships caused to those staff who would be entitled for 1st Class Pass as per old norms, but have been deprived of the said privilege pursuant to Board’s instructions dated 06th January, 2011 (after implementation of 6th CPC recommendations).
In this connection, NFIR brings to the notice of the Railway Board that the entitlement of Passes on the basis of revised pay limits (5th CPC) were issued vide Railway Board’s letter No. E(W)97/PS5-1/62 dated 01/02/1999 (RBE No. 17/1999) with the following stipulations:-
|
Category |
Class of privilege pass & privilege Ticket Order |
|
I. Group “A” & Group “B” (gazetted) II. Non-Gazetted Group “B” & Group “C” Employees |
I class “A” |
|
a) Appointed prior to 1.8.69 (i) Drawing Pay of Rs.5000/- or above, provided the employee are in a scale, the maximum of which is Rs.6000/- or above. (ii) Employees other than those covered under Item (i) above. |
I Class II/sleeper Class |
|
b) Appointed during the period form 1.8.69 to 31.3.87 (i) Drawing Pay of Rs.5375/- or above provided they are in a scale, the maximum of which is Rs.7000/- or above. (ii) Employees other than those covered in Item (i) above. |
I Class
II/Sleeper Class |
|
c) Appointed during the period from 1.4.87 to 1.2.99 i) Drawing Pay of Rs.7250/- or above or those who are in a scale, the minimum of which is Rs.6500/- ii) Employees other than those covered in Item (i) above. |
I Class
II/ Sleeper class |
|
d) Employees appointed after 01.02.1999 i) Employees in pay scale minimum of which is Rs.6500/- or above. ii) Employees drawing pay of Rs.7600/- or above. iii) Employees in pay scales of Rs.5000-8000 and Rs.5500-9000 and drawing pay of Rs.7250/- or above but less than Rs.7600/- iv) Employees other than those covered under (i), (ii) and (iii) above. |
II nd Class “A”
II/Sleeper Class |
|
III. Group “D” |
II/ Sleeper Class |
“The holder of new II nd Class ‘A’ pass shall be entitled to travel by AC-3 tier. II nd Class ‘A’ pass shall be of yellow colour”.
Federation further desires to mention that the pay limits for entitlement of passes had been revised in the past, pursuant to the implementation of pay structures recommended by successive pay commissions upto 5th CPC, but however, after implementation of the recommendations of 6th CPC, the Railway Board devised new entitlement formula and issued instructions vide letter dated 06/01/2011 linking the 1st Class Pass entitlement with GP 4200/- + PB-2. This action, no doubt gave entitlement of 1st Class Pass to those in 6th CPC Grade Pay 4200 (PB-2), but in the case of lower grade employees, grave injustice has been meted out due to abolition of pass entitlement policy which was in vogue for decades.
Federation also disappointed that vide minutes of the special meeting held on 19/02/2018 (Item No. 11/2013) the Railway Board have simply stated that “discussed and finalized”. In this context, NFIR lists below valid additional points for review:-
• The Federation has perused the travel entitlements as recommended by 6th CPC through its report.
• Vide Para 4.3.6 (Chapter 4.3 — LTC & other benefits) of the recommendations of 6th CPC, the Commission had recommended that travel entitlements, whether for the purpose of Official Tour/Transfer or LTC should be the same. Extract of V CPC relevant recommendation is placed below:-
“It is, therefore, recommended that travel entitlements, whether for the purpose of official tour/transfer or LTC, should be same”.
The Railway Board could have prudently decided the entitlement of higher level passes to the staff duly revising entitlements on the basis of pay limit of Rs. 5375 (5th CPC) appropriately as was done from time to time since 1969 while at the same time making the holders of 6th CPC Grade Pay 4200/- entitled for 1st Class Pass. NFIR feels that the Railway Board had committed grave mistake by scrapping the decades old policy which was facilitating higher class entitlement to the lower pay scale holders, while issuing orders dated 06th January, 2011 without taking into consideration that those aspirants in lower pay scales will become disillusioned and disappointed over deprive despite their pay being equivalent to Rs. 5375/- to the corresponding pay of 6th CPC and so on.
Federation therefore requests the Railway Board to kindly review the issue for rendering justice to those staff in lower pay scales who would have become eligible for first class pass on the basis of their pay which is corresponding to pay in revised pay scale but for revised instructions dated 6th January, 2011.
Yours faithfully
(Dr.M.Raghavaiah)
General Secretary