Under the fresh reform initiative, the board chaired by Commerce Secretary Lal Mani Joshi has instructed the corporation management to instantly stop distribution of kerosene, slash the unnecessarily high clothing allowance and double medical facilities currently enjoyed by the staff.[break]
“A decision for these reforms has already been taken by a board meeting on Sunday. We have asked the board´s member-secretary to draft the minute for signing and giving it a formal shape,” Joshi told Republica.
However, the cost-cutting measures pushed by the board have drawn stiff resistance from the staff.
So much so that even acting managing director of the corporation Suresh Kumar Agrawal, who is also the member-secretary of the board and has been assigned to minute the decision, has protested the decision.
Addressing trade union leaders, who flayed the board´s move, Agrawal on Monday said he will not draft the board meeting´s minute. “It will not come on record. If the board pushed for it, I will resign,” a reliable NOC source present in the meeting quoted Agrawal as telling them.
“We will resign en masse,” Shiva Adhikari, general secretary of NOC Employees Organization, told Republica. “We have not had any raises in benefits for the last 10 years. Now if the board wishes to cut even the existing facilities, we will not work,” he said.
Under the benefits pledged to its staff, the NOC has been providing cash equivalent to 60 liters of kerosene as fuel facility to each staff every month. “Sixty liters of kerosene every month is an unnecessarily high facility. This is straight away inflicting a loss of around Rs 6,000 on the corporation from each staff every month,” Joshi told Republica.
Agrawal argued that the facility was being pledged as per the Staff Bylaw of the corporation. But the board refused to buy his argument and suggested to him to amend the Bylaw if required.
While pushing for its elimination, the board has instead suggested to the management to pledge cash worth a cylinder of LPG, which presently stands at Rs 1,415, as fuel allowance, if the corporation deems it necessary for its staff.
The board has also assessed that the clothing allowance provided by the corporation to its staff was too high. Presently, the corporation pays Rs 19,000 and Rs 21,000 as clothing allowance to junior and senior officials respectively every year.
Civil servants, on the other hand, get a mere Rs 7,500. “The allowance is high. It should be lowered to the level of civil servants,” said Joshi.
Likewise, the board has also tagged the practice of the corporation doubly paying medical allowances to its staff as an ´immoral´ act and pushed for its immediate end.
Under the existing practice, NOC has been providing medical allowances equivalent to a month´s salary to junior staff and two months´ salary to senior officials. While these allowances are paid to the staff every year, the corporation again pays medical allowance equivalent to the same amount for the entire service period when the staff retire.
“This is creating double burden on the institution. Hence, we have asked the corporation to correct this practice immediately,” said Joshi.
The board has also asked the corporation management to make the staff liable to settle tax arrears related to insurance facility. Presently, the corporation bears the cost on behalf of its staff.
“These appear to be small seepages. But together they make up a huge amount. By curtailing them substantially, we can bring immense relief to the ailing NOC,” said Joshi.
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