Achievements and System Improvements on
North Central Railway, Accounts Department
Under Dynamic Leadership of
Smt. Vandana Singhal, FA&CAO
Following improvements have been effected in the systems:
1. Computerization: On NCR, PRIME & AFRES were languishing for 3 ½ years , without any substantial progress in HQs and it was not even started in Divisions. This was initiated and M/s Exillant, Bangalore was awarded the contract. The work started w.e.f. Jan'09 in all the units, HQ and Traffic Accounts Office. With relentless efforts, hard work and total focus by the concerned officers and staff, all the modules of PRIME and AFRES, such as Pay Roll , leave account, internal check, PF, Pension, Cheque generation, Cash Book, RAR & Account Current have been implemented in HQs and all the three Divisions. Other modules such as, Seniority, Bio data, Loans and advances are being implemented. Cash and Pay module has been implemented in Jhansi Cash Office.
2. With the implementation of PRIME & AFRES, the working environment and efficiency of Account & Personal Department has improved multifold and has infused more transparency and Accountability. The entire data base is now in ORACLE and all the files are totally integrated, there is no duplication in data entry and sufficient validation checks have been introduced.
3. Touch Screen: In HQ Accounts Department as well as all the three divisions, and Jhansi crew lobby, "Touch Screen" has been commissioned, which will facilitate employees to view their PF balance, Leave balance and salary details (in fact, the entire employee information such as income tax details, month wise PF/NPS ledger details etc. are available to employee on the touch screen). Contractors can view their bill status on this touch screen. This facility will be extended to all the crew lobbies.
(Touch screen inauguration by Shri. HC Joshi, GM, NCR in HQ)
(Touch screen inauguration byShri. HC Joshi, GM, JHS, Div.)
4. Web connectivity of database of PRME & AFRES: The implementation of PRIME & AFRES at NCR has brought about greater transparency and accountability in the system. Earlier the information pertaining to employees was monopoly of few which now is readily available to all with the use of information technology. The database of PRIME & AFRES has been connected with NCR website, with all security, where employees can access information pertaining to them like salary details, PF details, leave & Advances status, Leave balance etc. Alongwith this Contractor/Vendors can know the staus of their payments from the website itself.
5. Payment to Vendors & Contractors by NEFT: 100% payment of Vendors and Contractors is being made through NEFT in HQ & all the three divisions for the past 1 ½ years. This has reduced number of cheques issued on NCR from 11000 per months to 3000 per month. This has also brought tremendous improvement in vendor/contractor satisfaction as well as ease in cheques & bills reconciliation. Cheques and bills reconciliation is also being done through software by getting soft copy of cheques credit scroll from Focal Point Bank and matching the same with Form –I .
6. Traffic Accounts Office:
(i) Traffic Accounts Office has implemented AFRES Module of Traffic Accounts in totality i.e. Traffic Book Part A, B, C and D. thus, Account Current is now being generated in AFRES. This is a major achievement because most of the Railways have only implemented this system upto Traffic Book Part –A & B only. General Manager, NCR, inaugurated the AFRES module on 11.8.2009. Now statement 7A is being integrated with AFRES. Other Systems improvements of traffic accounts office are detailed below:-
(ii) Payment of refund of tickets issued by IRCTC, being done through individual cheques, numbering 20/25 per month with inordinate delays in receipt by the party, multiplicity etc., has now started through electronic payment every week, efficient and eliminated cheque writing.
(iii) E-Payment system of freight introduced for IOC BAAD, Mathura since December, 2008, the first E-payment facility made available to a customer in NCR (providing annual earnings of about Rs. 200 cr). E-payment facility for Diamond Cement (Parichha) has also been introduced w.e.f. Aug.'09. E-payment for IOC Panki is in progress and will be introduced w.e.f. 31. 3.2010. These have resulted in about 30%freight earnings of NCR collected through E-payment.
(iv) In NCR, all the vouchers are now being received in TA Office directly from the stations rather than through cash office. This has improved efficiency in terms of less possibility of missing vouchers and ensured prompt billing.
(v) During inspection of stations, it transpired that 15 cartons containing 2,43,566 tickets were lying at 13 stations, with TA-15 , proposed for absolution. It was brought to the notice of CCM that all stations having UTS counters should have only 2 months stock of printed card tickets. Subsequently 95,30,153 tickets have been destroyed. This could have been a major area for fraud and misuse.
7. With the implementation of PRIME & AFRES, NPS data is now being uploaded directly to NSDL without any delay.
8. In NCR, Computerized PF slips are being issued to all 72000 employees in the month of July itself, every year, after implementation of PRIME & AFRES. Earlier these slips used to be delayed even upto November.
9. Finance Module of MMIS has been implemented and is now being integrated with AFRES.
10. The figures relating to Public Grievances, Court Cases, D&AR etc. were collected manually from all units every monthly & the Efficiency Section was compiling. It led to wastage of manpower at various levels in units as well as HQs & also enormous delay. Now this information is being collected from units through e-mail, leading to tremendous savings in terms of manpower & paper and making instant information available.
11. Suspense:On NCR, thousand of items were lying in miscellaneous Advance registers, from the year 1990 onwards. All these items have been cleared and now there is no item more than 3 months old. All other suspense balances have been reviewed and maximum inefficient balances have been cleared.
13. The pension debits being received from the banks are now being checked with reference to debit scrolls. As a result, so far Rs. 21.6 cr. have been detected as wrong debits, out which Rs. 6.35 cr. have already been realized. These wrong debits are on account of:
· Pensioner having died but still his account is being credited.
· Two accounts being credited for one pensioner.
· Regular pension as well as family pension being credited.
· Family Pension being credited beyond the permissible date.
These are being rectified by deputing teams from HQs to the Banks. This will result in recurring savings in subsequent years. There are 2.5 lakhs pensioners, for whom debit amounting to Rs. 1900 cr. is received from the bank every year.
14. On NCR, Jhansi Workshop, large scale condemnation of under age Wagons was being done for years together. This was brought to the notice of GM by Finance NCR, as a result condemnation has been reduced from 1227 No. in 2006-07 to 246 no. in 2009-10.
15. मुख्य राजभाषा अधिकारी होने के नाते, यह सूचित करते हुए मुझे अत्याधिक प्रस्न्नता एवं गौरव हो रहा है कि रेल मंत्रालय द्रारा राजभाषा हिन्दी के प्रयोग–प्रसार में उत्कृष्ट योगदान के लिए उत्तर मध्य रेलवे को रेलमंत्री राजभाषा ट्राफी से दिनाँक 29.03.2010 को सम्मानित किया गया। इसके अतिरिक्त राजभाषा कार्यान्वयन समिति, इलाहाबाद द्रारा भी इलाहाबाद स्थित विभिन्न केन्द्रीय सरकारी कार्यालयों में से महाप्रबन्धक कार्यालय, उत्तर मध्य रेलवे को राजभाषा हिन्दी के उत्कृष्ट प्रयोग प्रसार के लिए सर्वोत्कृष्ट कार्यालय घोषित करते हुए 25.2.2010 को चल बैजयन्ती के प्रथम पुरस्कार से सम्म्नित किया गया। उपरोक्त दोनो पुरस्कार उत्तर मध्य रेलवे को पहली बार प्राप्त हुए है।
(रेलवे बोर्ड द्वारा प्रदान की ट्राफी)
(नगर राजभाषा कार्यान्वयन समिति द्वारा प्रदान की गयी ट्राफी)
Vandana Singhal
FA&CAO
