CHAPTER IV

REGISTRATION OF RECEIPTS

4.1 Receipt of Dak- Distribution Section is charged with the responsibility of receipt, issue and distribution of all incoming and outgoing dak (except Notices received in Notice Office), and it works round the clock during the entire year. The Section (along with Notice Office) is also responsible for receiving Email addressed to the Secretariat, which will be treated in the same manner as other dak received by the Section.

All letters etc. meant for the Secretariat received in dak are sorted out by the clerk on duty into the following categories:-

i) Official letters;

ii) Official letters addressed by name;

iii) Notices of Questions etc. received by post; and

iv) Personal letters meant for officers/officials.

Notices of Questions/Legislative business etc. are also received in Notice Office directly and through Fax and sent directly to the Branch concerned after diary in Notice Office.

Dak addressed to the Officers by name is either sent to them through a messenger of the Distribution Branch or is directly received by them or their personal staff.

Outside office hours, the dak is sent to the addressee at his/her residence, if marked ‘immediate’ and addressed by name. In such a case, the officer is normally intimated in advance over telephone about the dak being delivered at his/her residence. In all other cases, dak is received by the Clerk performing night duty and the dak is delivered to the officer as per his instructions. If advised, the contents of the letter are made known to the concerned officer over the telephone and the clerk then acts according to the instructions received.

Private letters meant for the staff are sorted out and kept in a tray in the Distribution Section and collected by them from there itself.

4.2 Acknowledgement- Except ordinary dak, all registered letters /files/parcels etc. received in the Distribution Section are acknowledged by the recipient clerk, signing his/her name in full and in ink with date and designation

4.3 Registration of Dak- i) Urgent dak is separated from other dak and is dealt with first.

ii) On opening dak, the Distribution Section clerk checks enclosures and make a note of any paper found missing.

iii) All covers, except those addressed to Officers by name or those bearing a security grading are opened by Distribution Section and entered in the Register and sent along with the Peon Book to the addressee.

iv) All registered dak addressed to the Secretariat received in Distribution Section is immediately sent through Peon book to the addressee after entry in the Register. The format of the Register and Peon book are as follows:

RECEIPT REGISTER

Diary No.	Number & date of Document received Number date		From whom received	Brief Subject	Addressed to
1	2	3	4	5	6

NOTE: In the margin of the top left side of the letter, a rubber stamp containing the following particulars is affixed on which the Diary No. and date is recorded as under:

RAJYA SABHA SECRETARIAT

DISTRIBUTION SECTION

Dy. No. ……………………….

Date……………………………

For………………………Sec.

PEON BOOK

Date

To whom

addressed

Contents of cover

Name of Peon

Sig. in ink of the Receiver with date and time of receipt

S. No. of Diary Register

Letter No. & Date

4.4 Internal Distribution: After diarising the dak in the Distribution Section, the process of distribution of dak begins. The papers meant for Ministries and Members are put in the respective pigeonholes provided in the Section from where the addressees retrieve their papers. All other dak is distributed through the Messengers.

4.5 Circulation: All circulars/office orders/Parliamentary papers meant for Officers/Sections are distributed using Email facility directly by the originating Section as far as possible. Where copies are to be distributed, the Originating Section sends the signed copy along with instruction on no. of copies to be prepared, circulation list and priority if any. In case there is extreme urgency, this should be indicated specifically. The Distribution Section will arrange to circulate copies through the Messengers from the Distribution Section after getting the required copies Xeroxed. The papers are also circulated to Chairmen, Standing Committees/ Department related Committees etc. as and when required.

4.6 Receipts in Notice Office from the Members - The Notice Office of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat also acts as a receipt office in respect of notices received from Members and keeps liaison between the Members and different Sections of the Rajya Sabha /Lok Sabha Secretariats and also with various Ministries /Departments etc. Notices of Questions, Short Notice Questions, Half-an-Hour Discussion, Special Mention, Zero Hour Submission, Resolutions, Amendments, Calling Attention, Short Duration Discussion and Motions from Members of Rajya Sabha are received by the Notice Office and in turn transmitted immediately to the concerned Officers/Sections. In such cases, no record is maintained in the Distribution Branch.

Apart from Notices, other papers/communications received by Notice Office from the Members (such as TA Bills, Exchange Orders etc.) are sent to the concerned Sections/agencies directly.

4.7 Procedure in Notice Office- For receipt and onwards transmission of Notices received in Notice Office, the following procedure is adopted:

i) A tray is kept in the Notice Office for receipt of the Notices during working hours.

ii) A box is kept outside the Notice Office and another box in the Reception Office, Parliament House, for receipt of notice after Office hours and on closed holidays during session period.

iii) As soon as notices are received, the date, diary number and time is recorded immediately through a numbering machine on each notice and entry is made in the computer software after selecting the type of notice. The software enables selection of the name of the Member and generates the Serial No./Dy. No. automatically against the notice entry.

At the end of each day a print out is taken in respect of each type of notice, in the format prescribed for the Register of such notices. Thereafter the notices are sent to the concerned sections by messengers every hour, or sooner during session period. The Formats of the Registers (and the Branch office to which the papers are sent) are given below:

I. Registers of Notices meant for Bill Office:

II. Registers of Notices meant for Legislative Section:

III. Registers meant for Question:

IV. Misc. Registers:

4.7.1 Formats of the Registers: The formats of the Registers are as follows. The daily print out is added to the folder containing earlier days’ print out. In respect of Registers A to L, at the end of each session the print outs are bound into a single volume in respect of each register. In respect of Registers M and N, these are bound at the end of each calendar year.

Sl.No.

Name of Member

Brief Subject

Time of Receipt

Sl.No.

Name of Member

Brief Subject

Time of Receipt

Proposed date

Sl.No.

Name of Member

Time of Receipt

Sl.No.

Name of Member

Starred/Unstarred Question referred With date

Time of

Receipt

Sl.No.

Name of Member

Date of Proposed Journey

Details

From To

Diary No.

From whom

Brief Subject

Section

4.8 Receipt in Section- When the dak is received in Sections the diarist will sign the Messenger/Peon book after checking the entries with the dak received. He will submit all receipts to the Section-in-Charge who will:

i) Sort out important and priority receipts and will determine priority for action on receipts and mark it in ink on the receipt itself. He/ She will also separate those receipts, which are not to be diarised. Important receipts, which need to be brought to the immediate attention of superior Officers, will be placed in a dak pad and submitted to the Officer concerned for perusal and orders at dak stage.

ii) Send back the mis-sent receipts to the Distribution Section for delivery to Section to which it is addressed thereafter-such receipts are forwarded to the Personnel Section with a request to decide the Section to which the receipt is to be marked.

iii) Separate the receipts properly addressed/marked out where the subject matter of the letter does not relate to the Section. Orders of the Under Secretary are obtained.

iv) Mark all other receipts to the dealing hands according to the subject allotted to each.

v) Hand over the dak to the diarist for diarisation.

4.9 Diarising of Receipts: A Section Diary is maintained in each Section (using the two opposite pages of a register) as given in the following Format:

SECTION DIARY

DATE______________________

Section

Dy.

No.

Central Dy.

No (of D. Branch

or Notice Office)

Number & Date of

Document received

No./Date

From

Whom

Brief

Subject

Classfi

cation

Assistant

whom

Marked

File

No.

On which dealt

Date of

Final

disposal

Remarks

3 4

Entries are to be made in serial order without leaving gaps. At the end of each day a line will be drawn and the next day, the date given in large letters before beginning entries of the day.

In respect of each receipt, columns (1) to (8) are to be filled in at the time of initial diarisation. Columns (9) and (10) are to be filled in weekly after getting the data from the Assistants concerned.

The Section-in-Charge may mark letters as ‘Important’ or ‘Time bound’ (as the case may be) in addition to categorisation as immediate, urgent and ordinary. In case of ‘Time bound’ references a certain time limit or a deadline is fixed by the higher authority for getting a reply. ‘Immediate’ receipts are of extra-ordinary urgency, which require instant attention of the person to whom those are addressed or marked. ‘Urgent’ receipts require attention without delay. The remaining will fall under category of ‘Ordinary’.

To keep a check on immediate, time-bound and other important letters received, a separate register (of immediate references) is maintained by the Section Officer personally called ‘Note book of important receipts' in the following format:

Note Book of Important Receipts

S.N.

Letter No. & Date

Received From

Marked to

To be put up by

(date)

Remarks (file no. and date of putting up and deadline for disposal, if any)

Date of Final Disposal

The Section-in-charge shall scrutinize the Note Book daily and direct the Assistants concerned in case the file has not been put up by the date given.

4.10 Scrutiny of the Diary Registers: (a) The diarist will be responsible for the proper maintenance of the diary registers. The Section-in-Charge will scrutinise the Section diary register atleast once a week to see that it is properly maintained and the distribution and the issue of the receipts is done promptly. The Section-in-Charge will put his initial on the diary register with date after the scrutiny, with remarks if any, in the remarks column.

(b) The Section-in-charge will ensure that all cases entered in the Note Book of Important Receipts which have been put up by the dealing hands in time are followed up. In case the files have not been received back from the higher authorities by due dates, a note should be sent to their personal staff listing the file number and date of submission of the pending cases.

(c) It would be primarily the responsibility of the Section-in-charge of the Branch concerned to keep track of the disposal of all receipts whether ‘Immediate’, ‘Urgent’ or ‘Ordinary’, in order to ensure that all the receipts have been disposed of by the dealing hands within the time-limits fixed. The Branch Officer is responsible for ensuring that this task is regularly and effectively performed. Any negligence or carelessness on the part of the Section-in-Charge in discharging this responsibility should be viewed seriously.

4.11 Movement of Receipts- i) Receipts addressed to Officers and opened in their personal offices will be diarised in the personal office on registers similar to the 'Note book of important Receipts', and personal staff should ensure that action taken on the receipts is entered in the registers. After the Officer has perused the dak, the personal staff after making diary entries, will sort the dak and send it to the personal staff of the Officer to whom the dak has been marked.

ii) Dak received in the Section will be sorted by the Section officer and important receipts will be submitted at dak stage itself to Officers. When received back the receipts will again be perused by the Section-in-charge. In case a time limit or other urgency marking has been indicated, entry will be made in the Note Book of important receipts.

iii) Officers perusing dak will initial it with date, mark it to the concerned Officer/Official/Section and indicate the urgency and time limits within which the receipt should be dealt. In as many cases as possible, the line of action, where it is not already clear, will be indicated on the margin, in order to reduce the time and labour of processing at Section level.

iv) Receipts submitted to Officers move in pads labeled as ‘Receipts' or Dak Pad’. Their perusal is to receive prompt attention of the Officers and their personal staff must ensure the prompt movement of the Dak Pad as soon as it has been perused.

v) Section-in-Charge must keep a watch on any hold-up in the movement of receipts put up at dak stage. The diarist brings to his notice any receipts which are not received back from Officers within 24 hours.