Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Prime Minister’s Office

01-August-2014 16:36 IST

PM encourages self-certification in place of affidavits and attestations to benefit the common man

·  All Union Ministries and State Governments asked to make provision for self-certification and abolition of affidavits, not required by law

·  PM steps in to reform the public service delivery system, bridge governance deficit

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has sought minimum use of affidavits and shift to self-certification, so as to benefit the common man.

In a citizen-friendly initiative, all Ministries and Departments of the Union Government, and all State Governments, have been asked to make provision for self-certification of documents in place of affidavits.

The requirement of attestation by Gazetted Officer is also sought to be replaced by self-certification by the citizen.

Under the self-certification method, the original documents are required to be produced at the final stage.

The Prime Minister, during his meeting with all Union Secretaries on June 4th, 2014, had spoken of reforming the public service delivery system, and bridging the governance deficit. This measure is a start in that direction. It is expected to benefit the people immensely, as all affidavits not required by law shall eventually be done away with.

In communications addressed to all Secretaries of the Union Government as well as the Chief Secretaries of States/Administrators of Union Territories, the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has noted that “obtaining either an attested copy or affidavit not only costs money to the poor citizen but also involves wastage of time of the citizens as well as of the Government officials.” The Department has called for a review of the existing requirement of affidavits and attestation by Gazetted Officers, and replacement by self-certification.

In case of false self-certification, relevant provisions under the Indian Penal Code would apply.

Source : PIB

Central Government Employees Sanctioned and Actual Strength – Minister’s Reply in Lok Sabha

As many as 30.85 lakh Central Government Employees are at present working in various Central Government Departments in the Grade of Group A, Group B, Group B (Non-gazetted) and Group C Cadres as informed by the the Minister of State for Finance, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha recently. It was also informed by the Minister that the combined Sanctioned of all cadres put together in Central Government is 36.85 lakh.

The Text of Press release issued by Ministry of Finance in this regard is as follows

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

01-August-2014 17:05 IST

Sanctioned and Acutal Strength of Employees in Central Government; 30,84,530 Civilian Employees in Position

As per the information available, the estimated sanctioned and actual strength of Civilian Employees (Group-wise) in the Central Government is:

Group-wise number of sanctioned posts / Number in position
A(G) / 100869 / 87960
B(G) / 86840 / 76724
B (N.G) / 144454 / 113477
C (N.G) / 3352380 / 2806396
Total / 3684543 / 3084530

In view of the prevailing economic scenario and in order to promote fiscal discipline, Government of India has issued Economy instructions which, inter alia, impose a ban on creation of new posts. However, proposals for creation of posts are examined / concurred to in the Ministry on case to case basis if supported by adequate functional justification.

All Ministries/Departments are required to review their vacancies vis-a-vis the work load regularly to take necessary steps for filing up vacancies as per their requirements subject to extant guidelines and rules on the matter.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Source: PIB