A meeting was held today in the DGHRD office at Rajendra Place, New Delhi, which was attended by the Committee appointed by the CBEC (to study issues concerning proposed All India Seniority for Inspectors of Central Excise and their Customs counterparts) and office bearers of Associations representing Gr B Executives of both Excise and Customs sides. DG - HRD chaired the meeting. Chief Commisioner, Delhi Customs, ADG HRM and several other senior officials of the CBEC and DGHRD were present in the meeting.
AICEIA reiterated our earlier submissions made under letter dated 12. 05.2014 and also the fresh points raised in our letter (text reproduced hereunder) handed over during the course of today's meeting.
F. No. AICEIA/Merger/ HRD/2012/03 Date
: 19.05.2014
The Additional Director General [HRM]
Directorate General of HRD
Central Board of Excise and Customs
409/8, Deep Shikha,
Rajendra Place, New Delhi 110 008
Sub: Unification of Group
B Non- Gazetted Executive grades into three AI cadres - Reg
Madam,
Please
refer to the DGHRD, CBEC OMs on the captioned subject issued under F. No.
8/B/36/HRD(HRM)/ 2014 Part- I dated 07.05.2014 and 09.05.2014, and this
Association’s letter of even no. 2 dated 12.05.2014 in response to the same,
further to which the following submissions
are made :
1. Apart from the Judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the Radheshyam Singh case,
the provisions laid down by DoP&T as regards Seniority too mandate all
India Seniority for all Inspectors who have been recruited by an All India
Merit List:-
“2.1. SENIORITY OF DIRECT RECRUITS
The relative seniority of all
direct recruits is determined by the order of merit in which they are selected
for such appointment on the recommendations of the U.P.S.C. or other selecting
authority, persons appointed as a result of an earlier selection being senior
to those appointed as a result of subsequent selection. (O.M. No.
20011/5/90-Estt (D) Dated 4.11.1992)”
2. Para 2.3 (page 3) of the Board Brief (F.No. 8/B/36/HRD(HRM)/2014) does not represent wholly true facts inasmuch
as the assertion that “Even though the selections are made on the
basis of all India Merit List, allocation of selected candidates is done on the
basis of merit-cum-preference basis to various zonal /Commissionerate based
cadres. Allocation of the grade, viz. Inspector CE, Preventive Officer or
Examiner, is also done on the
basis of the preference indicated
by the selected candidates at the time of submission of application for CGLE to
the Staff Selection Commission.” is not correct . Information available
indicates that for 1996(1999), 2003, 2004 & 2005 batches the process of
allocation was not as per the above mentioned scheme. Promotion prospects for
Inspectors (to the grade of Superintendent) / extant or projected relative
levels of stagnation have obviously
never been a criteria adopted for allocation of Zones to a newly recruited
Inspector.
3. The very first paragraph of the aforesaid
Board Brief (page 2) states that “it is necessary to ensure that the
legitimate aspirations of the officers and staff for promotions and upward
movement in the hierarchy of the department are adequately addressed, as far as
possible, in the present cadre restructuring exercise or even after that.” This
Association welcomes this assertion of the DGHRD, and reiterates its
submissions made countless times earlier that the Cadre Restructuring is an
instrument to address such vexatious issues, and enhance career prospects of all cadres, and it has to be
essentially implemented in a manner to resolve
issues such as these. The CBEC’s visualization that “zonal/cadre
disparities in promotional avenues will gradually disappear with passage of
time” is not acceptable to this Association, as
such an attitude would be abdication of
responsibility to positively intervene in a situation of grave and
long-standing injustice even when an unprecedented opportunity is afforded for
addressing conclusively these matters. It may also kindly be noted that this
Association and the cadre it represents have been repeatedly assured by the Board over the past many years that
come CR and the regional disparities plaguing it will be done away with.
Yours faithfully,
(Ajit Kumar K G)
Secretary General
We have emphatically impressed upon the Committee that our demand is that All India Seniority must be introduced beginning the first batch of Inspectors recruited on an All India Merit List inducted in the Department in 2003, and that all Inspectors senior to them in all Zones must be promoted prior to that. We have also informed that if this is not accepted, there will most certainly be serious litigation immediately.
A point was sponsored in the Meeting by the AIACEGEO, the Assn representing Supdts of Central Excise that what was needed was to bring parity among all the 3 executive base cadres in the Deptt., and our Association extended full support to the same, and pointed out that vide letter dated 28.12.2012 and on various other occasions we have voiced this demand unequivocally, and that the AICEIA views the removal of regional disparites among Inspectors from various Central Excise Zones as an important step in this direction.
An extremely unfortunate development was when during today's meeting the Secretary General of the AIACEGEO vehemently opposed our demand for introduction of All India Seniority and upgradation of all Inspectors with 12 or more years of service stating that it would greatly inconvenience them (Superintendents) with fewer Inspectors to assist them in many Zones, and that if Inspectors have to move to other Zones on promotion as Superintendents, the apprehension of All India Transfer liability could arise in Supdts' cadre. We did counter this argument saying that the Supdts cadre is functioning presently without any difficulty without AI transfers, and the only relaxation required in the new dispensation suggested by us was that transfers on requests may be allowed to Supdts wishing to be repatriated to their home zones if they have had to move out to other Zones on promotion on account of vacancies in the higher grade not being available in their home zones at the time of their promotion.
Equally disturbing was the Superintendents' Assn SG's repeated insistence during today's meeting for amendment of RRs of Supdts to reduce the residency period for promotion of Inspectors of Central Excise to Superintendents from eight years to two years, even as the AICEIA forcefully advanced its position that any reduction of minimum qualifying service should be considered only after regional disparities in promotions are completely done away with in the Inspectors' cadre.
The Office Secretary of the Central Excise Superintendents' Association who also attended the meeting today with his SG, in a vicious attack on our Association, said that Resolutions of AICEIA need not be considered seriously as opinions of the C. Ex Inspectors' cadre since CEC meetings or Conventions are attended by hardly a hundred Inspectors whereas the cadre itself is about 17000 strong. AICEIA office bearers raised objections to this immediately, and made it clear that we cannot accept casting of such aspersions on our organisation. The DG HRD and the CC Delhi Customs agreed with our contentions and advised the Supdts' Assn office bearers to confine their submissions to functioning of their own Association.
The Committee shall now compile the different Associations' views and in light of the same submit its report to the CBEC, which, in turn, will take a final call in the matter.
It was also informed that notifications in respect of jurisdiction of new formations and staff allocations as part of CR shall be issued by the end of this week.
Ajit Kumar K G
Secretary General
