Dear Comrades,
I am writing to you under very difficult circumstances. Our
President Com. A Satish and myself were in Delhi yesterday , and along with our
Organising Secretary Com Devender Kumar , we had a long discussion with the DG
HRD, CBEC . Other senior officials (ADG- HRM and Addnl Director HRM looking after key issues
of implementation of CR) were also present.
Yesterday we also went to North Block twice, but could not
meet the Chairperson CBEC. We were told that she is pre-occupied on account of fiscal ending work, and had some other meetings scheduled
for the day. OSD to Chairman told us, “You had just met the Chairperson last week,
and also the week before that . Why is it that your Association is having to
meet her so frequently?” When we denied that, it was informed that delegations
of different regional units of Inspectors’ Associations were coming and meeting
her, and that it has become very difficult for them to differentiate between
different delegations, and all issues are getting mixed up. I need not
emphasise once again the tremendous amount of damage such activities by some of
our own regional formations are doing to our common cause.
However, we have explained all issues in detail to the OSD
to the Chairperson, and submitted copies of all recent correspondence to him.
He has assured that it will be duly
communicated to the Chairperson.
The news is that :
1. 1. All India Seniority for Inspectors is not being
introduced. This matter is still stuck
exactly where it was many months ago, and now it is being said that even if it is brought
in, it will only be prospectively- meaning it will only be for Inspectors
joining the Deptt. in 2014 or later . Board/DGHRD continue to insist that there
is no requirement binding them to place in an All India Seniority List even
Inspectors who were recruited on the basis of an examination with an All India
Merit List. What they say is that the
SSC results (All India Merit Lists) are limited only to
Recruitment, and not Seniority. Despite our best efforts, we ahve not
been able to convince them otherwise.
2. 2. The Residency period (minimum qualifying length
of service) for promotions from Inspector to Superintendent is being reduced from the
present 8 years to 2 years for filling up vacancies arising on account of the CR
exercise. This effectively means that after 2 or 3 months, in some Zones
officers who became Inspectors in 2012
will be Superintendents, whereas in many others officers with as many as 6/8/10/12/16
years’ service will continue to rot as Inspectors for God alone knows how many
more years. The implications of this as regards further promotion prospects, I
need not elaborate. We have lodged our
strongest protest on this issue, but the Board looks set to overlook our
protests and go ahead with its plans.
3.
By projections made by DGHRD, promotions in
different C.Ex Cadre Control Zones would reach 1996, 2001, 2002. 2003/4/5/6.....10/2012
batches . Thus disparities, consequent to implementation of CR, could possibly
widen among the different Zones instead of being eliminated or brought to a minimum, which has been our
primary demand for quite some time now. It also needs to be mentioned here that
even this much progress, especially in the acutely stagnated Zones has been
made possible by the DGHRD tentatively allocating more posts than normatively
indicated as per functional requirements. Some more improvement in these
projections is being worked out by the DGHRD. The fact of the matter, however, is that UNLESS ALL INDIA SENIORITY IS BROUGHT
IN AS PART OF THE CR ITSELF, THERE WOULD
BE NO RESPITE FROM THIS NAGGING ISSUE OF REGIONAL DISPARITIES.
4. 3. The file for issue of Notification of
jurisdiction of new formations
consequent to CR is presently with the Revenue Secretary, from whom it has to
go to the Minister of State (Revenue), and then the Finance Minister for
approval.
5. Immediately thereafter Notification of
jurisdictions, and Order by which allocation of posts to various formations is
to be made can be issued, since they have been kept in readiness.
What next for us? That has to be decided by us immediately.
I feel that without losing even a moment, we should approach
a High Court or an appropriate bench of CAT and seek issue of directions to the Govt. of India and CBEC that:
1. 1.CR in CBEC should be implemented only in such manner that disparities in promotions
(Inspector to Supdt) that obtain among different Cadre Control Zones should be
brought to a minimum, if not eliminated altogether;
2. 2.No promotions of any Inspector who joined as
Inspector of Central Excise through an
exam conducted by SSC drawing an All
India Merit List should be effected unless an All India Seniority List too is
drawn for them, following the spirit of the judgment delivered by the Hon’ble
Supreme Court of India in the Radhe Shyam
Singh Vs UoI and Others case;
3. 3. Recruitment Rules of different cadres in CBEC
should be revised only after consulting / inviting opinions of the
Recognised Staff Associations
representing the cadres that stand to be
affected (most) by such amendments, and
duly considering their views too.
A few young Inspectors of East Zone have already taken the lead in
this matter, and I propose that we should join them, and AICEIA can be a party
to the case if legal opinion supports such an action, and from our Legal Fund,
we can support them to the extent possible. Rajasthan (Jaipur) branch of the
AICEIA too has sought legal opinion on the matter, and is preparing to go to
court on this issue if needed.
Apart from this, I also feel that it is of utmost importance
at this juncture that we embark on the
path of strident and effective agitation at the earliest.
I offer to be the first to go on an indefinite hunger strike
before the Office of the Chief Commissioner Nagpur Zone starting the first week
of April 2014.
To make it effective we must have hunger strikes at least
before each CC’s office and also before each
Commissioner’s offices in cities where there are and no CCs’ offices.
If comrades are not able to go on indefinite hunger strike,
we can have relay hunger strike, with say 3 or 5 comrades fasting for 24 hours,
followed by next similar batch.
If even this fails to bring the desired response, then we
must resort to STRIKE ACTION.
Please positively convey your opinion ( by email at the id ajitkgbhilai@gmail.com
) on the same, after duly consulting your members , latest by 30.03.2014 so
that appropriate further course of action can be decided immediately thereafter. Each
Branch/ Circle Secretary ( President, or any other senior office bearer in the
event of unavailability of Secretary/ President ) is required to communicate opinion of their
Branch/ Circle/ Unit . Every All India
office bearer too is requested to send
his considered individual opinions by mail at the earliest.
I exhort the younger and later entrants in the cadre of
Inspectors to realise the lot that
awaits them if they do not awake, arise
and stand up together for their legitimate rights today. If this opportunity is
lost, thousands of young Inspectors en-masse from Zones at a disadvantage will
again find themselves in the unfortunate position of the present very senior
Inspectors of acutely stagnated Zones like Shillong, Jaipur, Bhopal and Mumbai, facing the ignominy of having to work as subordinates of officers junior to them by decades but
fortunate to have been posted to Zones
with far less stagnation like Delhi and
Bhubaneshwar.
Placed hereunder are
scanned copies of important communications
sent to Board in the past few weeks.
Yours fraternally,
Ajit Kumar K G
Secretary General
