Benefitting around 12 lakh Railway employees, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved payment of productivity-linked bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days' wages to all eligible non-gazetted Railway employees, excluding RPF and RPSF personnel, for the 2017-18 financial year. The Cabinet also allotted Rs3074 crore for the establishment of two new permanent campuses of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Tirupati and Behrampur.
The productivity-linked bonus to railway employees has been estimated at Rs2,044.31 crore, a statement said. The wage calculation ceiling prescribed for payment of PLB to eligible non-gazetted railway staff is Rs7,000 per month and the maximum amount payable per eligible railway employee for 78 days is Rs17,951, it said.Productivity-linked bonus is paid each year before the Dusshera and Puja holidays.
For the year 2017-18 PLB equivalent to 78 days' wages will be paid, which is expected to motivate the employees for working towards improving the performance of the Railways, the statement said.
The construction of the two campuses of IISER shall be completed by December, 2021. The total cost likely to be incurred is Rs3074.12 crore," an official statement said.
"The creation of two posts of Registrar, one in each IISER, has also been approved. Both the IISERs will be constructed in area of 1,17,000 sqm which will have complete infrastructural facilities for 1,855 students each," it added.
The IISERs will provide top quality science education at the undergraduate and postgraduate level, PHDs and Integrated PHDs."They will carry out research in frontier areas of science and will enable India move towards a knowledge economy by attracting best scientific talent as faculty and prepare a strong base of scientific manpower in India," the statement said.