Farewell, Comrades

It's time now for a new Central Committee to take charge of the AICEIA. The XVIIIth Convention beginning tomorrow in Trivandrum will elect a new Committee, as  the present one steps down with six months of its tenure still remaining, an important reason for this being to foster  transition to a more youthful and even more representative leadership. I trust delegates to the Convention will exercise their franchise astutely, with foresight  and  show good judgment.

For this Committee, it has been a great privilege to champion the cadre's causes since December 2012 when we were elected at the Patna Convention.

We have the satisfaction of having achieved in large measure the objectives we had set for ourselves then, and having fulfilled the  promise made  to our fraternity. It is the result of the relentless efforts of this Association that the CBEC in its meeting on 09.04.2014 approved the proposal put forth by the DGHRD that there should be an All India Seniority for Inspectors of Central Excise. Though the modalities of the same as envisaged by the Board are not to our satisfaction, fact remains that it is a historic breakthrough. We have to continue to employ all our means to ensure that All India Seniority must be ensured for all Inspectors recruited  on the basis of an All India Merit List. Over the past year and a half this Committee has left no stone unturned to eliminate the shameful  disparities that exist among different Zones in promotions of C.Ex. Inspectors to Superintendents. This issue has dominated our agenda throughout our tenure. There is hardly a door which we haven't knocked in pursuit of solutions to this chronic and extremely vexing problem. From M(P&V) to DG HRD, successive Chairpersons of the CBEC and Revenue Secretaries, and also Union Ministers, we have met them all and presented the issue and proposed just and workable solutions. It remains to be seen how fruitful our efforts have been  when the Cadre Restrucuring in CBEC gets rolled out.

There have been disappointments too. Lack of  discipline shown by some regional units in approaching and meeting  the Board/DGHRD officials directly and communicating demands divergent from the ones reflected in resolutions of the AICEIA CEC meetings and Conventions have done great damage to the Association's overall credibility and severely eroded the influence it had mustered through protracted and  massive efforts. Also we need to be far more responsible in fulfilling our responsibilities and obligations towards the organisation - enhancing membership, collectiion and forwarding of DDO Certificates, timely collection of membership subscriptions,  payment of dues regularly to the national body, holding of meetings and elections as mandated in our bye-laws, and the like - much is left to be desired on all these counts in several Circles/ Branches/Units.          

Another area where we failed miserably was in forging an alliance with the present  leadership of the Association of Central Excise Superintendents. For reasons best known to them they have been, overtly and covertly, trying to thwart all our efforts to remove regional disparities in promotions within our cadre, and have also been viciously opposing our demand for All India seniority for Inspectors.

The coming days, hopefully, will see  some significant improvement in these two aspects of the organisation's functioning.

We wish all success to the Committee that will take over from the present one the charge of running the AICEIA from here on. We also assure them of all support and assistance, should they require it of us.

Serving the cadre has been a privilege for each one of us on this Committee, and an experience that  each one of us shall cherish and treasure for the rest of our lives. It has been a magnificient team effort, with each one contributing his best. Truly outstanding have been the contributions made to the organisation's causes by two individuals - our beloved President Com A. Satish  and Com. Ashish Biswas, Treasurer of the AICEIA, both of whom despite personal inconveniences,  devoted  time and energy in immense measure and toiled tirelessly  to take the Association forward - the organisation, and I, personally, are hugely indebted to them.

We also received very valuable guidance and advice from several past office bearers of the AICEIA. We are extremely grateful for this, especially to Shri Tirthankar Pyne, Shri R Manimohan, Shri Arun Zachariah, Shri K P Manoj and Shri Kousik Roy.  

I thank every single Central Excise Inspector in the country, all the National and Regional office bearers of the AICEIA, and sister organisations in the CBEC for their unstinted support and all the love they showered on me. I have been truly fortunate in having been able to travel to many parts of the country and interact with thousands of our members.  

As we bid adieu , it would only be appropriate that we share here the link to the recording of the brilliant and enlightening Inaugural Lecture in the AICEIA Annual Lecture Series on Participatory Governance delivered at Nagpur on the 25th of January 2014 by  our erstwhile President and Secretary General, Shri R Manimohan, who is a Superintendent now - a rare talent in the Department, and truly an embodiment of  the trinity of virtues of goodness, wisdom and courage. This lecture, I'm sure, will be an inspiration and source of enlightenement to all those interested in organisational matters, especially the young men and women among today's Inspectors, as well as many many others, to be listened to carefully, understood , imbibed and put into practice. I also hope that the AICEIA shall in the years to come continue with this Series which we have only initiated. 

Lecture Part I

Lecture Part II

Lecture Part III


Farewell, dear Comrades. It has been a wonderful journey together.
Long Live AICEIA !

Forever yours fraternally,

Ajit Kumar K G
Secretary General