SCHEME FOR ENGAGEMENT OF GDS ON COMPASSIONATE GROUNDS
MERIT POINTS AND PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION.



No. 17-17/2010-GDS
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & IT
Department of Posts
(GDS Section)
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg.
New Delhi-110116
Dated: 14 Dec. 2010
To,

Chief Postmaster General
Postmasters General
General Managers (Finance)
Director of Accounts (Postal).


Subject: SCHEME FOR ENGAGEMENT OF GDS ON COMPASSIONATE GROUNDS-MERIT POINTS AND PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION.

Sir/Madam,

To objective of the Scheme for engagement of Gramin Dak Sevaks on compassionate grounds is to engage dependent family member of a Gramin Dak Sevak dying in harness, thereby leaving his family in penury and without adequate means of livelihood.

2. Keeping in view the objective of the Scheme, the existing instructions relating to compassionate engagement have time and again been reviewed/modified/simplified so that the system finally derived at shall be more transparent, efficient and uniform in nature.

3. Currently, there is no laid down transparent criteria for adjudging degree of indigence of the GDS family while considering their cases for compassionate engagement. Therefore, a need is felt to lay down transparent criteria for considering a request for engagement on compassionate grounds by a Committee. A balanced and objective assessment of the financial condition of the family has to be made taking into consideration of his/her assets and liabilities, and all other relevant factors such as presence of an earning member, size of the family and the essential needs of the family including social obligations, etc. in order to assess the degree of indigence of all the
applicants to be considered for compassionate engagement. The Department of Personnel &Training has provided for limiting compassionate appointment of wards of departmental employees to 5% of the total vacancies and no such stipulation has been made for this purpose in respect of GDS. This, however, does not mean that all applicants are to be engaged as GDS on compassionate grounds in relaxation of normal and only the exceptional and deserving cases are to be considered for compassionate engagement as the scheme stipulates that compassionate engagement is to be given only in indigent and deserving cases.

4. The existing procedure has been reviewed in this Directorate and it has been decided by the competent authority that to achieve the objective of the scheme of the compassionate engagement and to ensure complete transparency, merits of the cases can be conveniently indicated by allocating points to the applicants based on various attributes. Accordingly, the Department has worked out a system of allocation of points to various attributes based on a hundred point scale as indicated in the tables below:-


5. The above system of weightage not only brings more objectivity to the method but also ensures complete transparency and uniformity in the selection process. The above method is being introduced for considering cases of compassionate engagement to the dependents of the GDS in the event of death of the bread winner. The cases which are more than five years old or having an earning members (s) in the family shall continue to be referred to this Directorate as hitherto before.

6. Shri RS Nataraja Murti Committee had recommended in Para 17.20.2 as under:- "Keeping the spirit of compassionate appointments as enunciated by the Nodal Ministry and also the ruling of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, there is need to provide compassionate appointment to the dependents of GDS in hard and deserving cases. The purpose would be served if the engagement of GDS on the division in a year. The vacancies may be computed separately for GDS BPM and other categories.
The period of consideration of deserving cases may be kept as three years. While considering the cases there need not be any relaxation in educational qualification for the post of BPM. In hard and deserving cases requiring relaxations of educational qualification, the engagement may be offered in other categories of GDS subject to the condition that the incumbent can satisfactorily discharge the duties assigned". While the intention behind the scheme of engagement of GDS on compassionate grounds is to allow engagement of GDS on compassionate ground in hard and deserving cases only and not in all cases, the recommended percentage is twice the percentage prescribed for regular Government employees. The above recommendations have been examined
in this Directorate and it has been decided to accept the same. However, in view of the
Department's plan to computerize the Branch Offices and to use hand held devices etc. besides the requirement of combination of duties in various circumstance, it all categories of Gramin Dak Sevaks including GDS BPM.

7. The number of vacancies and ceiling of 10% now being proposed may be calculated in the following manner:-

(a) The vacancies occurring in a calendar year age to be computed separately for the GDS BPM and other categories of GDS by their appointing authorities for each division well in advance. The appointing authorities while calculating the same shall take into account the vacancies that are likely to occur due to discharge of Gramin Dak Sevaks on attaining the age of 65 years for this purpose during the ensuing calendar year. However, the vacancies arisen due to absorption of Gramin Dak Sevaks in regular departmental posts and due to death occurring during the currency of the calendar year will be added to the vacancies occurring in the next calendar year for computation. The requisite information therefore needs to be compiled at all levels and finally sent to the Head of the Circle concerned by 30th Nov in advance along with cases complete in all
respect.

(b) Circle Relaxation Committee shall consider all cases and approve the same subject to guidelines on the subject and ceiling of 10% of the vacancies calculated separately for GDS BPM and other categories of GDS strictly on application of the Point System for determining the indigence. Cases prescribed to be sent to the Directorate more than 5 years old and cases in which one or more member is earning shall continue to be recommended as per existing provisions subject to this overall 10% limit to be applied on divisional basis.

(c) In units where on application of the ceiling percentage, the number of vacancies for consideration of cases for compassionate engagement works out less than 1 (not zero), one vacancy may be earmarked in that division/unit for compassionate engagement.

(d) This percentage of 10% shall only apply to cover cases of wards of deceased GDS and not to GDS acquiring disability during service defined in the persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. Section 47 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 provides that no establishment shall dispense with or reduce in rank an employee who acquires a disability during his service as also no promotion shall be denied to a person merely on the ground of his disability. In case a GDS acquires a disability during his service and is considered to be unsuitable for the GDS post he was holding, could be shifted to some other post with the same TRCA.

(e) Period of consideration of deserving cases is prescribed as three years i.e. in case where it is not possible to offer engagement of GDS on compassionate grounds due to the application of prescribed ceiling, the case may be considered by the CRC in the subsequent CRC meetings of the next two years to the maximum.

(f) No relaxation in educational qualification for the post of GDS BPM or any other category of GDS would be permissible.

The above instructions will be applicable for all the compassionate engagement case to be considered on or after 01.01.2011. These issues with the approval of Secretary Posts.

These instructions may be communicated to all concerned.