Regulations for Husband and Wife working for Central Government

How a married couple is treated in various Central Government service matters when both Husband and Wife are serving in Central Government? 

The need to have a clarity on this subject gains much significance because treatment of them could differ in each law as each one would treat them according to the intention of the particular law. 

For example, both are entitled to draw HRA even if they work in the same station, and live together but not provided with Government accommodationt

But when comes to Allotment of Quarters maintained by Government, only one residence will be provided to them except in the case of Judicial separation.

This article is a compilation of regulations in various service matters in respect of Husband and Wife when both are Central Government Employees.

HOUSE BUILDING ADVANCE

HBA can be claimed by either of them.  As per Rule 2 of HBA Rules, for the purpose of eligibility based on cost-ceiling of the house to be constructed, pay of both of them can be taken in to account.  However, for the purpose of calculating the maximum amount of advance eligible under HBA, only the pay of the employee who prefers to avail HBA can be taken in to account.

MEDICAL ATTENDANCE RULES

In non-CGHS areas, central government employees are covered by CS(MA) Rules which provide reimbursement of medical expenses incurred by the Central Government Employees. In the case of Both husband and wife working central government, to avoid double claim for same medical expenses, either Husband or Wife is permitted to make claims for self and entire family.   The person who prefers to make claims under Medical Attendance Rules should be clearly mentioned in the joint declaration given by Both Husband and Wife in this regard.  In the event of promotion, transfer, retirement, etc this declaration can be revised at any time.   In the case of wife prefers to avail this concession for the entire family, she can either choose her parents or parents-in-law as dependents and prefer medical claim for them.

CHILDREN EDUCATION ALLOWANCE

As far as reimbursement of payment of tuition fees and hostel fees are concerned, either Husband or Wife  can avail the benefit. 

FAMILY PLANNING ALLOWANCE

Either Husband or Wife may prefer to receive Family Planning Allowance.  Since FPA is based on pay in pay band and grade pay, it will be beneficial if the employee drawing higher pay prefers to receive the same.  In that case, there is no condition specified with regard to the employee who undergone family planning.

LEAVE TRAVEL CONCESSION

Husband

Wife

His wife, His two surviving unmarried children or step children wholly dependent on him, His parents and/or step mother wholly dependent on him, whether or not residing with him and His unmarried minor brothers as well as unmarried, divorced, abandoned, separated from their husbands or widowed sisters residing with and wholly dependent him, provided their parents are either not alive or are themselves wholly dependent on him

Her wife, Her two surviving unmarried children or step children wholly dependent on her, Her parents and/or step mother wholly dependent on her, whether or not residing with her and Her unmarried minor brothers as well as unmarried, divorced, abandoned, separated from their husbands or widowed sisters residing with and wholly dependent her, provided their parents are either not alive or are themselves wholly dependent on her

The above mentioned provision relating to family members can be separately declared and LTC for those members can be separately claimed by both Husband and Wife, subject to conditions that children will be eligible for the benefit in one particular block as members of the family of one of the parents only and that if husband or wife avails the facility as a member of the family of the other, he or she is not entitled for claiming the concession for self independently.

TRAVELLING ALLOWANCE

 

Travelling Allowance allowed in the event of transfer of one or both of them simultaneously one of the spouses can prefer the claim and the other will be treated as member of family. In such situations only one lumpsum grant can be claimed.

If a husband or wife is transferred after 60 days of transfer of the spouse, but within 6 months, 50% of transfer grant is admissible. However, if both are entitled for reimbursement of cost of travel by personal car, if required they can travel separately and claim both of such travel expenses.

FAMILY PENSION

Either Husband or Wife is entitled for family pension in addition to own pay or pension, if the spouse dies.

In the case of demise of such husband /wife also, who was receiving family pension for the demise of his/her spouse, the child / children of the deceased parents should be granted two family pensions subject to certain limits prescribed. Please refer to Rule 54 (11), CCS (Pension) Rules in this regard.

HOUSE RENT ALLOWANCE

HRA will be paid to both husband and wife even if they work in the same station and did not avail Government Quarters. Even if one of them avails the Government residence in the same station where the other spouse is working, he/she will not be entitled for HRA.

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HEALTH SCHEME

While both along with their family members will be eligible for medical treatment under CGHS, the spouse drawing higher pay will contribute to the Scheme. The scheme does not cover the Parents of the non-contributing employee.

However, women employees can prefer to include her parents-in-law, instead of her parents, in the family for availing CGHS.

If both Husband and Wife prefer to contribute for CGHS, parents of both will be entitled for medical benefits under CGHS.

ALLOTMENT OF RESIDENCE

For the purpose of allotment of residence status of each of Husband and Wife such as designation, pay/grade pay drawn, service experience etc will be considered independently.  In other words, higher status of either of two can be taken into account for priority, higher grade of residence etc.  In any case both Husband and wife are entitled for allotment of one residence only except in the event of judicial separation.

Value of the life of a CRPF jawan in India?

What is the value of the life of a CRPF jawan in India? Perhaps extremely low and that is why neither the country nor the Government react much if CRPF jawans get killed with impunity time and again by the Maoists. In April 2010, 75 Jawans of CRPF and 1 of the Chhattisgarh State Police were brutally massacred by the Maoists in Dantewada region of Chhattisgarh. Even when they were dead, their bodies were brutally mutilated by the Maoists to instil fear among others. In July 2010, the Maoists derailed Gyaneshwari Express in West Bengal leading to death of 150 innocent people. In between there have been several such attacks in which hundreds of police personnel and innocent civilians have been killed of police personnel, and Maoists even going to the extent of opening up the stomachs of dead soldiers and planting IED explosives with timers inside and then stitching them up again so that when the bodies are carried back to hospital bombs would set off then, killing more people. The Maoist attack on CRPF jawans in Chhattisgarh last Tuesday in which 16 police personnel were killed was a repeat of what has become a routine. Had it been any other country, it would have collectively gone for a total war against the perpetrators of such heinous crimes but not India. Thus the attacks kept on happening and the hapless Indian kept on paying the price.

A Clueless Central Government Each time, after a Maoist attack, the official statement from Government of India has been either that It is too early to comment or that warnings were given to the respective state about such attacks or that Law and Order is a state subject and that it is the responsibility of the concerned state government to take care of it. Even before investigations on one such attack gets over and blame games continue, news of another such attack creeps in. When no defence works, one can hear the Ministry of Home Affairs singing the same old song of not having any concrete intelligence inputs about the impending Maoist attack, as if the Maoists were supposed to courier or email their next destination of attack before committing the attack. The Heinous Effort of the Left Liberal to Justify Maoist Terror - The issue of relentless Maoist attacks and the brutal killing of hundreds state police and central police personnel is just one aspect of it.

The other shocking aspect is the manner in which even today there are people in the intellectual echelon of the Indian society who still try to justify the actions of Maoists. There is no dearth of the likes of Arundhuti Roy and her ilk who would say that the Maoists are doing it for the rights of the hapless poor tribals (sic!!). Nothing is far from the reality than this. The Reality of Maoists- Brutal and Ruthless Till 2013, in just five years, more than 2500 civilians had been brutally killed by Maoists and on most occasions, the victims have been hapless tribals of India. In 2009, the Maoist had beheaded Inspector Francis Induwar, a tribal, in Jharkhand. The nation was shaken by the cry of the child of Francis Induwar who had vowed to grow up and become a police officer to take revenge on the Maoists for the death of his father. In July 2013, the Superintendent of Police of Pakur district in Bihar, Amarjeet Balihar, a tribal too, was killed along with his security personnel in an ambush by the Maoists. In between, there have been countless such incidents of killing of tribals. Incidentally, a sizeable proportion of police personnel fighting the Maoists are tribal and the Maoists have been more brutal on them.

There have been several instances where it became clear that Maoists have been forcing hapless tribal villagers to make their children join Maoist movement. On several occasions it became apparent how the Maoists have often used children and women as human shield when attacked by Police. And yet, as a nation, India prefers to remain under the illusion that Maoists are messiah for the poor. Yet it is not just the police and the hapless tribals who have been at the receiving end. Attempts were made on the lives of former Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal namely, Chandra Babu Naidu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. In the recent past several top politicians of Congress were killed in an ambush in Chhattisgarh.

The Systemic Problems of India's Policing System- No prize for guessing that the Indian policing system is today in a mess and suffer from a large number of deficits, the biggest of them being complete lack of decisive leadership. Be it the Central Police Forces or the State Police Forces, most the senior positions are held by IPS officers. And the biggest grievance of the police forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations continue to be the fact that their senior officers never lead from the front. It is extremely rare to find a senior IPS officer leading men from the front in the anti-Maoist operations, even though there were exceptions like K Vijay Kumar who as Director General of CRPF always was by the side of his jawans. But he was an exception.

On most occasions the CRPF and the state police forces are led by Sub-Inspectors or Inspectors during operations while at times one would find Assistant Commandants or Deputy Commandants of CRPF joining the operations, neither being an IPS. Sad part is that on most occasions the men on the ground are given directions by their senior officers who prefer to be at a safe distance. In fact it was reported in 2012 in an article published in The Telegraph, how a top level Indian Army officer had told the then Home Secretary "Get your IPS officers to command battalions and lead from the front instead of making them babus behind desks."

It was similarly reported by India Today in 2012 as to how a large number of top level posts in the Indian Central Police Forces have remained vacant because of the reluctance of IPS officers to get posted in difficult and challenging terrains. Is it possible for any police force to ever win a battle against perpetrators of crime if top leadership's commitment to lead from the front remains a questionable issue? One would simply have to ask the hapless CRPF or the state police jawan battling the Maoists in the deep forests to find out as to how many times he found top officers of his battalion by his side in the battlefield.

The management of the Central Police Forces in this country have been so lacklustre and so much devoid of any imagination or rather common sense, that over the last four years alone more than 16,000 CRPF jawans and including many officers quit the force. In the last few years more than 65,000 have quit jobs from all Central Police Forces, a further reflection of the sheer mismanagement of the Central Police Forces in India, especially at a time when it has been facing major internal security challenges from all fronts.

The Mismanagement of Central Police Forces The shocking saga is the manner in which CRPF has been used as nothing less than a beast of burden with companies and battalions of CRPF being made to be on harsh anti-Maoist and counterinsurgency duties all the year round. In most cases they are made to be in J&K, then posted to Norhteast and then back to Maoist regions followed by J&K again. In between they would be taken to any part of the country wherever there is a law & order problem or would be deployed for election duty. For all practical purposes it is impossible for a normal human being to be on harsh duties for whole of the year. The Army makes it a point to have timely rotation of duties between field posting and peace time postings but not the Central Police Forces. The CRPF japans hardly get leave on time since being far away from their battalion headquarters (another major reflection of mismanagement), sanctioning of leave take lot of time. In addition to that, very high level of stress, lack of even the very basic amenities, worst kind of living conditions, shortage of basic necessities and a hopelessly ridiculous promotional scheme wherein most japans of CRPF remain at the constable rank for almost 20 years before getting the first promotion to the rank of a Head Constable, have all contributed to the creation of the mess, In 20 years of service , a jawan of the Indian Army becomes a Junior Commissioned Officer while a Central Police jawan can at best hope to become a Head Constable.

When Will India Wake Up? But before everything else, the nation as a whole would need to decide as to whether it wants to continue with this mayhem or solve it forever. It needs to decide if it wants to fight the war against Maoists or let them continue with the mayhem and brutal killings. It is either India fight the war against Maoists in the manner in which a war is supposed to be fought or it not fight it at all. But let us not fight half a war. A war against terror cannot be won with demotivated soldiers and self-serving top officers. If India has to win the war against Maoists, it has to make sure that its foot soldiers are given their dues in terms of timely promotion, adequate compensation, timely leave, rotation of posting. Further, they need to be led from the front by the top officers. The legacy of deputation of IPS officers in the Central Police Forces need to be replaced by more avenues for the officers of the Central Police Forces who should be restructured into an organised cadre.

It is also imperative for the nation as a whole to come out of the illusion that Maoists are a good lot. Today they have been reduced to nothing less than an organised crime syndicate or a terror group which is brutal, which is exploitative and which has a dangerous agenda. Most of their top leaders are filthy rich and dream of ruling India one day after brutal suppression and devastation of the Indian state that they want to bring. And the hapless tribal is their cannon fodder for all this. It is time the Indian state wakes up before it is too late. India has been extremely successful in quelling terrorism in J&K, Punjab and in Northeast. There is no reason why it cannot root out the Maoist menace.

Source:http://news.oneindia.in

Additional Incentives to Women to Join the Paramilitary Forces - CAPF

The steps taken by the Government to provide additional incentives to women to join the para-military forces are as under:-

(i) ‘Creches’ and ‘Day Care Centres’ have been provided by the CAPFs to women employees.

(ii) Separate accomodation for women personnel with basic amenities.

(iii) Toilet facilities are made available for the use of women employees by pitching of proper tents with commode in areas where appropriate locations are not available.

(iv) Vehicles fitted with mobile toilets for women personnel during movement from one place to another and during picketing duties.

(v) Facilities already available under the Central Government like Maternity Leave, Child Care Leave, are also applicable to CAPFs women personnel.

(vi) Medical facilities with special care to the pregnant women. Lady Doctors are available to provide medical coverage. 

(vii) Education facilities to their children in KendriyaVidyalaya have been provided wherever available.

(viii) Facilities have been provided to women personnel at par with their male counter parts at work place without any gender bias.

 (ix) In case of married women, generally husband and wife are posted in same station as far as possible.

(x) Instructions issued vide Department of Personnel and Training’s OM No.35021/2/2009-Estt (C), dated 3.7.2009, regarding concerted effort to increase representation of Women in Central Government jobs are strictly adhered to while conducting recruitment to ensure adequate women candidates are attracted to join CAPFs.

(xi) One female member is detailed as member of the board for making recruitment of women personnel.

(xii) The Programme on Gender Sensitization in Govt. Service has been conducted by all CAPFs to educate their personnel. This has also been made part of the Basic Training Programme.

(xiii) Committees have been constituted at all levels to check sexual harassment and to deal with the complaints of women personnel.  All CAPFs have included the NGOs in the Complaint Committees to enquire into complaints of sexual harassment.

(xiv) There is proper mechanism established for redressal of Grievances of women employees of CAPFs.

(xv) Ministry of Home Affairs have issued order suggesting time-limits for processing of the disciplinary proceedings on the complaints of Sexual Harassment at work place so that proceedings are concluded expeditiously by CAPFs.

(xvi) Ministry of Home Affairs have directed all CAPFs to amend their respective Act/Rules suitably to make necessary provisions as per the guidelines and norms emanating from the judgement of Supreme Court in the case of Vishaka and Ors Vs. State of Rajasthan and Ors. (JT 1997(7) SC 384).

(xvii) Women personnel are given equal opportunity in their career progression i.e. promotion/seniority at par with male counter parts.

(xviii) Women personnel are encouraged to be self-dependent by imparting proper training and talks during various courses.

(xix) Separate General Pool Accommodation for women employees available to Central Government employees are also applicable to women employees in CAPFs.

(xx) Women personnel are generally not being posted in units located in very remote and hostile areas.

Source: R.S.USQ No. 992 FOR 14.08.2013