The provisions for giving reservation in employment and promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes employees in Ordnance Factory Board are applied to all posts Gazetted/Non-Gazetted/Non-lndustrial Employees/Industrial Employees, as per instructions/rules of Department of Personnel and Training. For Group ‘A’ officers the reservation is applied only up to lowest rung in recruitment only.

Vacancies arising on year to year basis are filled up. Sometime due to non-availability of a few candidates some SC/ST backlog vacancies remain unfilled for sometime. This is regularly reviewed by Ordnance Factory Board/Ministry of Defence.

This information was given by Ministry of State for Defence Shri MM PallamRaju in a written reply to Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste in Rajya Sabha today.

-PIB

The Constitution (One Hundred and Fourteenth Amendment ) Bill, 2010 provides to increase the retirement age of Judges of High Courts from 62 to 65 i.e. at par with the retirement age of Judges of the Supreme Court. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law & Justice, said that the Bill was taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha on 28.12.2011. However, the discussion has remained inconclusive due to adjournment of the Winter Session.

-PIB

The Ministry of External Affairs issued an advisory in June, 2012 to all Regional Passport Offices in the country to introduce walk in facility to ease availability of on line appointment and facilitate easy submission of forms for passport applications under following categories:

• Applicants for Tatkaal services (fresh / re-issue cases);
• Applicants for issue of Police Clearance Certificate (PCC);
• Applicants for deletion of ECR status in passports without any change in personal particulars;
• Applicants for inclusion of name of the spouse in passport;
• Applicants with valid passports, seeking new booklets in case of exhaustion of visa pages;
• Senior Citizens (above 60 years);
• Minor below 15 years whose parents hold valid passports;
• Physically challenged persons; and
• Central / State Government servants, their spouses and dependent minor children who have ‘No Objection Certificate’ / Identity Certificate.

The Ministry of External Affairs has recently introduced walk in facility to ease online appointments and smoothen submission of applications at the six Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) under Regional Passport Office, Hyderabad from these above mentioned categories of applicants w.e.f. August 01, 2012.

The Minister of State in the Ministry Of External Affairs Smt. Preneet Kaur provided this information in reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

-PIB

892 personnel have been awarded police medals on the occasion of the Independence Day this year. President’s Police Medals for Gallantry have been awarded to 13 personnel, Police Medals for Gallantry to 113 personnel, President’s Police Medals for Distinguished service to 84 personnel and Police Medals for Meritorious Service have been awarded to 682 personnel.

28 personnel on the occasion of Independence Day, 2012 have also been awarded including President’s Correctional Service Medals for Distinguished Service to Three personnel and Correctional Service Medals for Meritorious Service to 25 personnel.

Organization/State wise list of medals awardees and details are given below and are also available on MHA website www.mha.nic.in & PIB Website www.pib.nic.in

-PIB

On the recommendations of PMO, a Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary in June, 2009 to look into the issue of `One Rank One Pension and other related matters`. After considering all aspects of the matter, the Committee keeping in mind the spirit of the demand, suggested several measures to substantially improve pensionary benefits of Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR) and Commissioned Officers, which have been accepted by the Government and orders for implementation of all the recommendations have been issued.

Government has constituted a Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary and consisting of Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Defence Secretary, Expenditure Secretary, Secretary (ESW) and Secretary, DOP&T for looking into the pay and pension related issues of relevance to Defence Services Personnel and Ex-servicemen. The Committee has already had several meetings and the recommendations of the Committee are to be submitted to the Government by 8.8.2012. Action on the recommendations can be taken after the committee`s report is processed and accepted by the government.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Shri MM PallamRajuin a written reply to Shrimati Ingrid Mcleod and others in Lok Sabha today.

-PIB