November 27, 2012 · 2:52 pm

Extension in service in the ESIC: Principles and Provisions.

Retirement is a concept introduced by the British people to streamline the administration. In the pre-British period for millennia the officers were occupying the government posts till the end of their life and it had resulted in retardation in administration. The British rulers avoided such retardation through the system of ‘retirement’ but, at the same time, they found a way of using the expertise of the retired persons through ‘Re-employment’ without affecting the forward movement of the others in service. The DOPT instructions on extension in service are very strict because the DOPT is aware of these historical facts.

In regard to the ESI Corporation, there is a provision in the Recruitment Regulations for every post in the ESI Corporation which permits relaxation under certain circumstances. It enables the Director General of the Corporation to relax any of the provisions of these regulations with respect to any class or category of persons if he is of the opinion that it is necessary to do so. He must, however, obtain specific prior approval of the Central Government. It is understood that this provision is invoked while granting extension. These Regulations do not provide for extension. But, extensions are possible only if the other modes of appointment like promotion, deputation or direct recruitment are waived by invoking the Relaxation clause. Moreover, the profuse use of the word ‘any’ in the Recruitment Regulations cannot override the provisions of Sec. 17 regarding the involvement of the UPSC.

Is extension in service that simple in the ESI Corporation?

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November 22, 2012 · 4:30 pm

ESIC Inspection Procedure and its Impact on Society

(Dear Readers,

We have seen the theory and practice in Administrative Procedure in the earlier Posts. We have seen the link between the internal administrative procedure of a department and its impact on public. The current Post deals with certain vital aspects of the administrative procedure evolved in the Revenue Wing of the ESI Corporation and the way it directly affects the insured persons, insurable persons, employers, Social Security Officers and the Revenue Branch Officers. All the instructions cited in the Post are available in public domain.)

The objective of the ESI Scheme is to provide a variety of benefits to the working population. The provisions for inspection mentioned in the statute are, therefore, intended only to further that objective.  Concealed employment can be detected only through proper inspection including Ledger Verification in a thorough manner. A simple visit by the Inspector or his going around the factory cannot help detecting such cases. Inspections alone can ensure that all the coverable employees have been covered without being left out, and that contribution is paid on their behalf on all items of wages. If contribution is not paid on all items of wages, the benefits payable would only be a pittance and would not help sustenance of the family of the insured persons during the periods of sickness, maternity, etc., The provision for inspection in the ESI Act is, therefore, intended, mainly, to safeguard the benefit provisions.

The ESI scheme pre-supposed mutual trust on the part of the Employers and the Corporation. It was presumed that the compliance would be honest and correct. That was why the Act did not make inspection mandatory. But, when the scheme was enforced, it was found that the reality in the field was different. The working population was denied coverage or was given benefit very very less as the wages on which the contribution was paid was very less.

Periodical and proper inspections alone could safeguard the interests of the working population by ensuring proper coverage and compliance, the authorities understood. As the saying goes, the ESIC did not get what it expected. It got only what it inspected.

Former Director General, Mr. T.C. Puri who was in charge of the ESIC during the period from 1967 to 1972 had done personal research on insurance matters and issued orders for  proper documentation of the behaviour of the employers so that the Inspection methods could be made more effective when dealing with recalcitrant employers. He ordered that such details available with the ESIC authorities must help them to ascertain which employer was ‘absolutely honest’ and ‘above board’ and which employer was ‘trying to cheat the ESI Corporation’. He said that such information must be readily available to the SSOs whenever they join a particular inspection division. Proper and necessary focus was there at that time on the inspection procedure. That set the trend of inspections for more than 24 years from 1968 to 1992.

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November 15, 2012 · 7:50 pm

Administrative Procedure: A Powerpoint Presentation

A powerpoint presentation that highlights the importance of Policy, Procedure, Law, Theory and Practice of Administrative Procedure, the direct connection between internal administrative procedure of a department and the interests of the society at large, the extent to which the administrative decisions must be treated as quasi judicial ones, etc., is the Post of this week.

Information culled out from various sources have been threaded together in the Presentation.

Readers are welcome to make use of it.

 Presentation on Administrative Procedure

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November 8, 2012 · 9:59 pm

Civil servant: how to be and how not to be!

Leaders in non-political fields!

Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, used to go on tour to various places in India with a large entourage. Earlier, the Viceroys were doing that but they were visiting only the princely states in that manner where the local rulers used to look after them all by providing extravagant facilities. There were no such hosts for a President. Yet, the entourage of Rajendra Prasad was large.

Mr. Bimanesh Chatterjee was working as Military Secretary in the Presidential Palace at that time and he was there from the time of Mr. C. Rajagoplachari when he was the Governor General of India. The Government Hospitality Organisation had to maintain the Presidential Palace. That organisation was headed by Mr. Bimanesh Chatterjee but was part of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. Mr. Chatterjee was under the direct administrative control of the Prime Minister while he had to work for the President. He was now working under two bosses.

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November 1, 2012 · 11:01 am

Appointment of Advisor (Medical Education) in the ESIC!

“A democratic government should not be too sensitive to helpful criticism as it always exercised a healthy influence on it. The aim of the government publicity organisations should therefore be to stimulate public interest to invite constructive criticism so that the government machinery (is) profited by it”.

–Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the first issue of the Information Magazine

brought out by the Madhya Pradesh government.

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 The story of consultants

 There had been many enigmatic episodes in the ESI Corporation during the period from 2007 onwards when the idea of medical colleges was conceived all of a sudden and executed with extraordinary alacrity causing surprise as well as disbelief. A few such episodes have, already, been dealt with in certain ‘Posts’ in this website. The episode of appointment of a person from outside as Consultant for setting up the Medical Colleges with the functional designation as Advisor (Medical Education) is discussed now.

Readers are aware that the ESIC authorities took steps to set up so many medical colleges, sanctioned large projects for construction of the buildings for those proposed-medical-colleges and incurred huge expenditure for doing spade work to commission those medical colleges even before the ESI Act authorised them to do so. So many consultants were appointed. Some of them started criss-crossing the country allegedly for their work and availing themselves of extravagant facilities. In sharp contrast, another set of consultants did not move out of Delhi even to see the buildings for which they were going to prepare remodel projects, in spite of the fact that the outlay for their projects was running into crores and crores of rupees. All, before any amendment.

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October 25, 2012 · 10:27 pm

Appointment of Deans in ESIC Medical Colleges

A retired person can be appointed in a public organization on contract basis when there is a genuine need for his services. Government of India has made adequate provisions and facilities to the authorities to make such appointments. There are various instructions in this regard in Swamy’s Manual of Administration, GFR, FR & SR including Leave Rules.

But, in the case of appointment of Deans to the ESIC Medical Institutions, we find something odd.

These appointments had been made even before the amendments to the ESI Act were passed by the Parliament in May 2010.

The Deans are functioning as Heads of Offices and the Medical Superintendents of the attached Hospitals are required to co-operate with them. Is there any general order issued by the DOPT that enables the retired officials to be appointed as Heads of Offices? Or is there any special provision made by the ESI Corporation for this purpose?

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October 18, 2012 · 11:05 am

Appointment of Legal Advisor in the EPFO

Appointment of Legal Advisor in the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation

  1. Mr. K. N. Chaturvedi was appointed as ‘Legal Advisor / Retainer’ in the ESIC from May 2009.
  2. He retired as Secretary (Law), Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India.
  3. In the month of June 2009, the Advice Department of the Ministry of Law cleared the Bill for comprehensive amendments to the ESI Act within two days without examining the issues in a proper manner.
  4. The way in which the Ministry of Law responded to the applications under the RTI Act was puzzling and the way in which it disposed of the appeals under the RTI Act, was even more bizarre.

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October 14, 2012 · 10:08 pm

Mr. K.V. Ramana Murthy, former D.D,on the Benefit Rates

(Mr. K. V. Ramana Murthy has given comprehensive reply to the Post titled ‘Enigmatic Amendment of 2011 that affects the Benefits’. His response is displayed here as a separate Post)

The amendment was based on the recommendations of the Venkatesh Committee  on ” Simplification of forms and procedures”, which reads as follows:Sub: – Simplification of Forms and Procedures- Suggestion for replacing the   “Standard Benefit Rate table’ in Rule 54 of the ESI (Central) Rules, 1950”

With simple procedure for calculation of ‘Daily rate’ of Cash benefit.

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October 11, 2012 · 11:36 am

Prof. Adarkar and ESIC Medical Colleges

The ESIC was intended to provide not only medical care in a better manner but also financial security in cases of sickness and in certain other contingencies.

Violation of the Fundamental Principles

While formulating the ESI Scheme, Prof. B.P. Adarkar had, very thoughtfully, specified eleven Fundamental Principles. They are, in fact, sound directive principles to be kept in view by the Government not only for any social security measure to be introduced through the ESI Scheme but also on any labour-welfare related matter. The one of his Fundamental Principles is that the proposed scheme “must not be too ambitious in the beginning”.

In the case of ESIC Medical Colleges, the following were the basic questions:

  1. Is it necessary for the ESIC to open and run Medical Colleges?
  2. Should those colleges be for post-graduate courses only or for under-graduate courses too?
  3. How many colleges must be opened and run by the ESIC?
  4. What would be the cost and what could be the benefit?

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October 7, 2012 · 1:29 am

Mr. O.A. Hameed, former A.C, on the Validation Clause!

Dear Readers,

Mr. O.A. Hameed, former Additional Commissioner in the Hqrs. Office of the ESI Corporation with illustrious track record in various capacities including his service as Regional Director in many regions has expressed his views on the Post dated 3.10.2012 on the Validation Clause in this website ( https://flourishingesic.info/2012/10/03/amendment-2010-the-amazing-validation-clause/). His analysis is comprehensive and deals with two aspects. One, the general Principles and Practices of Validation Clauses; two, the Validation Clause in the ESI (Amendment) Act, 2010 and its effect.

The depth of his write-up necessitates its display in the website as a separate post. Readers are welcome to get the benefit of his analysis. Now, Mr. Hameed speaks:

The concept of Validation Clause

Validation of previous action or what is called Retrospective amendment of law is not an unusual practice in India or countries like Australia, Canada, etc. where the legislative drafting policy in on similar line.  Though this practice is frowned upon and creates uncertainty in matters like taxation, frightening away investors, it is also a cover to ratify steps, which may have corrupt motives. Validating Legislation is passed when the executive arm of government, has acted relying on an erroneous view of the law. If an executive acting in tandem with the Political head of his realm, namely the Minister, wants something to be done in great hurry involving large outlay of money, and not sure that he or his Political master will survive for enough time to get proper law passed, such executive can go ahead and do whatever he chooses, often with corrupt motive or to unlawfully nurture a particular constituency (say Gulbarga, the only place in the country where all the four different medical institution of ESIC is sanctioned, though the major factory there is permanently closed and the IP population is paltry), and then seek a retrospective validation.

Sanctioning over 12000 crores of Rupees and releasing good part of it to contractors for over 42 medical education institutions all over the country in a short span of time, on the face of well-reasoned opinion that existing provision in Section 19 will not be adequate for such a venture, could be one such reason when the political Master agrees to this and promises to get law passed with Validation clause and rush the matter.

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