Railway to Introduce Next Generation E-Ticketing System.

   The Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal has that his Ministry will put in place a Next Generation e-ticketing system to bring about a paradigm shift in internet rail ticketing. Presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Parliament today he said, the new system will significantly improve the end user experience in respect of ease of use, response time as well as capacity. He said, the new system shall be able to support 7200 tickets per minute as against 2000 tickets per minute at present. It will support 1, 20,000 simultaneous users at any point in time against the present capacity of 40,000 users with capability to easily scale up as demand increases in future. The Minister said, the system will make use of advanced fraud control and security management tools thereby further improving fairness and transparency in disbursal of tickets.

   The Minister also announced several IT initiatives for the benefit of passengers. These are:

   i.    Extending availability of the facility of internet ticketing from 0030 hours to 2330 hours;

   ii.    Making e-ticketing possible through mobile phones;

   iii.    As a follow up to overwhelming response to Indian Railway website and Integrated Train Enquiry Service under “139”, a project of SMS Alerts to passengers providing updates on reservation status is being rolled out shortly;

   iv.    Covering larger number of trains under Real Time Information System (RTIS), whereby rail-users will be able to access information through nominated websites and mobile phones.

PIB

Earmarking of accommodation for On-board Housekeeping Staff (OBHS)

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(RAILWAY BOARD)

No.2013/TG-I/20/P/OBHS

New Delhi, dated 22.02.2013

General Managers,
All Zonal Railways.

(COMMERCIAL CIRCULAR NO.15 OF 2013)

Sub: Earmarking of accommodation for On-board Housekeeping Staff (OBHS)

Ref: Railway Board’s letters

   (a) No.2006/M(C)/165/9 dated 01.10.2007, 04.08.2009, 17.07.2009 and 19.07.2010

   (b) No.95/M(C)/141/1 Vol.II dated 21/28.05.2010

   Instructions have been issued by Board for implementation of On-board Housekeeping Scheme on Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/Duronto and important (Mail/Express trains vide letters under reference, In OBHS Scheme, a set of housekeeping staff travels on-board and carries out cleaning activities of coach compartments and toilets.

   2. The issue regarding earmarking of accommodation for OBHS staff has been examined by Board and it has been decided to earmark two berths/seats for them as under:-

   (i) Last two side berths/last two seats of the lowest reserved class available in the train should be earmarked for OBHS staff e.g., in the train having Sleeper Class as the lowest accommodation, berth nos.71 and 72 in S1 coach should be earmarked for them. Similarly, in the trains having AC Sleeper accommodation only, the last two side berths in B-I coach should be earmarked for OBHS staff.

   (ii) The list of trains in which OBHS facility has been provided will be forwarded by Mechanical Department to Commercial Department duly indicating whether this facility is being provided through contractor or through Railway staff.

   (iii) In case of non-Railway OBHS staff the contractor will be asked to deposit the fare for these berths/seats in advance. A flag will be put in the system to confirm whether payment has been received from the contractor or not.

   (iv) The contractor Will be required to give the names of the persons who may be going in the train at least 24 hours in advance. The names of these persons will be indicated in the chart with a special indication so that the public is aware of the same.

   (v) A provision for the cost of this fare will be kept in the contract at the time of calling of tender by Mechanical Department. In case of misuse of these berths/seats established, the only penalty will be cancellation of contract.

   (vi) In case of misuse of these berths/seats by departmental OBHS, strict as well as deterrent disciplinary action should be taken under D&A rules.

   3. CRLS will make necessary modifications in the software and intimate the date of effect to all Zonal Railways.

   4. After Implementation of this Scheme, a feedback may be sent after 3 months indicating the problems faced on this account.

   5. This issues with the concurrence/approval of Finance and Mechanical Directorates of Ministry of Railways.

sd/-
(S.K. Ahirwar)
Director Traffic Commercial(G)    
Railway Board                                         

Source: AIRF

PCDA Pension Orders 2013 : One Rank One Pension - Rate of Minimum Guaranteed Family Pension with effect from 24.9.2012 (Commissioned Officers)

   An Important circular has been issued by the Office of the PR.Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions)-Allahabad regarding that the Dependent Pension (Special) and Dependent Pension (Liberalised) to Defence Service Personnel and Ex-Servicemen and also issued the table of minimum guaranteed family pension effect from 24.9.2012 (Commissioned Officers). Implementation of Government decision on the recommendations of the Committee Secretaries Committee- 2012 on the issues related to Defence Service Personnel and Ex-Servicemen- Improvement in Casualty Pensionary Awards for pre- 2006 Armed Forces Officers and JCO/ ORs and equivalents.

   The main content of the order is reproduced and given for your information and also given a link to the original order...

Subject : Implementation of Government decision on the recommendations of the Committee Secretaries Committee- 2012 on the issues related to Defence Service Personnel and Ex-Servicemen- Improvement in Casualty Pensionary Awards for pre- 2006 Armed Forces Officers and JCO/ ORs and equivalents.

Reference : This Office Circular No. 503 dated 17.01.2013.

   Kindly refer to Table No. 1 appended in this office circular cited under reference. Your attention is invited wherein to various nomenclature columns (Column 6, 8, 11, 13, 17,19) the 2nd Life awards of SFP and 2nd Life awards of LFP have been shown. However, in the case of Commissioned Officers it should be Dependent Pension (Special) and Dependent Pension (Liberalised). In order to facilitate the PDAs for smooth revision and implementation, the same has been rectified and an amended Table No. 1(Revised) is enclosed for necessary revision/ action.

   It is also mentioned that the rates of Dependent Pension (Liberalised) in case both parents are alive are @ of 75% of LFP. This has been left out inadvertently which has now been reproduced in the revised table.

   2.All Pension Disbursing Authorities are authorized to revise/ update the family pension in respect of Commissioned Officers equivalent as per tables attached to this circular, if the same is beneficial. Table No. 1 appended in Circular No. 503 is replaced by Table No. 1(Revised) annexed with this circular.

   3.All other terms and conditions for revision of family pension in respect of pre-2006 Armed Forces family pensioners drawing pension under casualty pensionary awards shall remain unchanged.

sd/-
(ALOK PATNI)
ACDA(P)

No. Grants/Tech/0167-XIII (508)

Source:http://pcdapension.nic.in/6cpc/Circular-508.pdf