For the benefit of our Ministerial cadre!

4th Floor, GST Bhawan, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad - 380006

Running Text

Congratulations and welcome to the new AIB team! Let us usher in an era of revolution against the injustice meted out against the Ministerial cadre!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

MEETING OF CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

ALL INDIA CENTRAL EXCISE AND SERVICE TAX MINISTERIAL OFFICERS ASSOCIATION

Pune, the 21st September, 2011

NOTICE OF MEETING OF OFFICE BEARERS

Dear Comrades,

          All the Members may recall the meeting held with Hon’ble Chairman of CBEC, with the Office bearers of the Association, in the presence of Senior Officers in the Ministry to discuss and resolve the long pending demands on the 12th of July, 2011.  In order to review the progress made on the issues that were raised and decide the future course of action, it has been decided to hold a meeting of the Office Bearers of the All India Association. Accordingly, notice is hereby given for a meeting of all the Office Bearers of the All India Association at New Delhi on 27.09.2011 at 18.00 Hrs. The agenda for the meeting is as under:-

1.     Follow up action on the outcome of the meeting with Hon’ble Chairman
2.     Developments on Cadre Restructuring proposal
3.     Finalise the reply to DG, HRD on framing of Recruitment Rules
4.     Renewal of recognition of the Association
5.     Finalise the date and venue for the convention of the Association
6.     Any other matter concerning the cadre

3.       All the Office Bearers of the All India Association and the zonal/unit representatives are requested to attend the said meeting. They are also requested to bring to notice any issue concerning the cadre, which requires to be taken up with the Board/Ministry in the said meeting.

4.       Further, the zones/units which have not remitted the dues of the Association are requested to make necessary arrangements for settling the same immediately, latest by 23.09.2011, apart from ensuring that the DDO certificates are obtained and submitted to the All India Association by that date.

Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Thomas Mony
Secretary General.


Friday, September 16, 2011

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Pune, the 16th September, 2011

 Dear Members,

As stated in the earlier message, the file relating to the DPC for promotion to the grade of Chief Accounts Officer, has again been returned by the UPSC pointing out some deficiencies.  Firstly, this Association shares the concern of all its members who are aspiring to become a Chief Accounts Officer in the Department but who are possibly by now tired of the UPSC’s delaying tactics by time and again identifying discrepancies.  Needless to mention, if the UPSC had consolidated the discrepancies and informed the Board on time, by now all the discrepancies could have been taken care of and a date could have been fixed for holding DPC.  It is apparent that the information required has either not been provided to the UPSC by the Board, which ought to have been aided by the concerned cadre controlling authorities. Despite the above fact, this Association expects that the Board will surely put in genuine efforts in getting this file cleared, by putting in the same kind of attention as in the case of other Group ‘A’ posts. The deficiencies which have been raised can be accessed by clicking here.


It is now expected that the Administrative Officers who are at the helm of affairs and related to the issue directly or indirectly, in compiling/forwarding the relevant information will rise to the occasion and provide all the requisite particulars and leave no room for the Board/UPSC to raise any further objections in the matter and thereby facilitate, early decision in the matter.  At this juncture, I would like to personally seek genuine assistance from the office bearers of Local units in reaching the information to the Board at the earliest possible time.  Please do note that any information passed on to the Board may be got acknowledged so as to ensure that the information reaches UPSC in time.
 
          The issue relating to framing of RRs is another important subject, on which this Association was keeping a close watch on. It is learnt that the proposal for revising/ amending the RRs of certain cadres had taken precedence/priority over other RRs like, CAO, AO, AC and Superintendents, which required the immediate attention of the Board.  Instead of covering up the various lacunae that exist in the existing RRs by taking remedial measures, attempts are on to frame and notify certain RRs without even consulting this Association. In this background, a letter has been submitted to the Hon’ble Chairman, bringing to his notice the various issues that require his immediate attention/intervention, apart from requesting him to initiate a consultative process, before finalization of the Recruitment Rules. The Chairman was of the view that a consultation process is a must, and assured that the demands will be looked into positively. Copy of the said letter can be accessed by clicking here.

          Most of you might be aware that as per the existing RRs the upper age limit for promotion to the grade of Inspectors is 50 years. Few of our aggrieved members had challenged this provision before the Hon’ble Tribunal, Chandigarh, which has rendered a favourable verdict, a verdict that has been upheld by the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana by holding that RRs does not prescribe any upper age limit for promotion as Inspector. The age limit is restricted to only for appearing in the Departmental Examination for promotion. The Board has decided to accept and implement the judgement and extend the benefit to all similarly placed officers. The Officers who were denied promotion after the notification of existing RRs i.e., after 07.12.2002, may take up the matter with the concerned cadre controlling authorities.  Concerted efforts have yielded the desired results and benefits can be availed of by all the aggrieved officers who were denied their legitimate promotion for some reason or their other post 07.12.2002 as per the provisions of the Notified Recruitment Rules, 2002.   Copy of the order can be accessed by clicking here.

          Before concluding my message, may I keep all the learned members of this Association informed that the issue relating to downgradation of DOS posts to that of STA and getting the same filled from eligible Tax Assistants is being spoken about by projecting the issue differently.  I shall appreciate comments/ opinions in this matter directly from all those learned members of our cadre on e-mail id monythom@gmail.com so as to bring in clarity on the issue.  Incase I do not receive any mails I shall be putting up details in the subsequent message likely to be sent from my end next week.
 
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Thomas Mony,
Secretary General.

  

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Pune, the 11th September, 2011
Dear Members,

Consequent upon the bitter experience our cadre had from the previous Cadre Restructuring and the subsequent suffereings faced till date, still, you all are aware that your Association is making all possible efforts to ensure that all the demands (pending as well as fresh) which are being pursued in an amicable manner sees some results. Though assurances and promises are being made by the officials in power, from time to time, none of them have been fulfilled in the way it is expected to be, and the same are being tackled quite insensitively.

Our Board is not taking any of the suggestions of this Association to address the inequalities and the sufferings meted out to our cadre, which is evident from the recent happenings on the Cadre Review front. Though this Association has given all possible justifications in support of its demands on various occasions, the Board is not willing to heed to any of them. Hence, the Association feels that it is duty bound to enlighten the common members who are the actual beneficiaries and sufferers in any given situation, about these facts, and it is only the members who are required to take a call on how to tackle the situation and to sit across on the discussion table alongwith the decision makers in the Board.

The Association is of the firm opinion that without a change in the hierarchical structure of the CAO, AO, DOS, the issue of anomaly in their grade pay cannot be addressed. Though efforts have been made to take up the issue with the Expenditure, the sincerity is missing from the Board, when compared to the manner in which it was attended to in respect of some other cadres. The step-motherly treatment is clearly visible in the manner in which things are being attended to.

The CAO DPC which was last held in 2007, is yet to take place and despite any number of visits, meetings and correspondences, the same is yet to take shape. Compare this with the enthusiasm with which the DPC for other Group ‘A’ Cadres are being held and orders issued, even if it is purely on Ad-hoc basis. Not only that, the Recruitment Rules in respect of CAO and AO were not notified/amended after the 5th CPC/Cadre review of 2002, while it is due for revision after 6th CPC. However, no interest whatsoever has been shown by the Board on any of these issues, despite repeated reminders and meetings.

Coming to the Cadre Review, despite our strong objections and repeated requests to not show the grade of DOS and STA together, the Board has proceeded to do so even in its latest correspondence. During the previous Cadre Restructuring too, a similar exercise was conducted by the Board by issuing letter dated 03.08.2001 whereby the salient features of Cadre Restructuring was displayed in a very cosmetic manner and which letter was debated upon and many in the Cadre started analyzing their respective benefits involved in the said exercise leaving aside the very basic requirement of the cadre.

[For copy of the correspondence please click here].

This only shows the sort of techniques Board has been adopting, while dealing with our cadre. Further, we have repeatedly mentioned in our submissions that the number of LDC posts that is being proposed to be created will not alleviate the workload on the cadre or address its concerns. Instead of giving any cognizance to this demand to create equal numbers of posts in TA/STA cadre, the Board has not acceded to the said request. Similarly the reason for not providing separate staffing norms for a LTU remains a mystery and how the Board proposes to address the same is yet to be understood. Though a separate Cadre Control Commissionerate is proposed to be created for each zone, the allocation of the Ministerial officers is very meager, which again was pointed out in our submissions and the same has also been ignored royally. The demand for a one time relaxation for filling up the posts by promotion, with relaxation in qualifying service, wherever necessary has also not been met. Therefore, the much awaited Cadre Review might eventually come, but is going to be of no avail to anyone in this cadre, for the foregoing reasons.

The Minutes of the meeting held with the Hon’ble Chairman on the 12th July, 2011 stands testimony to the fact that even if a deadline is set to address an issue, it will not be maintained to resolve them, as there is no willingness to do so, since none of these issues raised therein have been addressed till date. It’s a matter of great concern for the cadre that even issues which could be decided with the approval of the Hon’ble Chairman or the Hon’ble Member(P&V) of CBEC does not get its desired approval and on some other issues the Board officials reveal their willingness to resolve issues which proposals get turned down by the Competent Authorities of Department of Expenditure, DOP&T, UPSC etc., etc. It is being given to understand that the framing of Recruitment Rules of Inspector has been taken up without giving any cognizance to the fate of Recruitment Rules of the hierarchical grades of CAO/AO and Superintendents.

It is being given to understand that the Board has proposed a qualifying service of 5 years from STA to Inspector and 15 years of combined service of TA/STA put together. Therefore, the posts that are likely to be created during the ensuing Cadre Restructuring will remain vacant for want of eligible candidates and thereafter as was done in the year 2003, the Board would very conveniently convert all the unfilled promote quota vacancies into Direct Recruit vacancies thereby depriving the Ministerial officers and causing injustice and lowering their morale.

The time has come for each one of us to rise to the occasion and meet the challenge to make our presence felt and fight for our existence, failing which, members of our cadre shall be overburdened with time bound work in the days to come, with hardly any promotional avenues and to survive with MACP benefits which too is meager.

It’s a sincere request from the Association’s end to each and every member of the Association to introspect and to analyze as to whether the hierarchy of the Cadre is well maintained and if yes, then there is no need for any uproar or any action to be initiated from our end.

However, incase each and every member of the Cadre, be it an Administrative Officer who has put in nearly 15 years as Administrative Officer and possessing a grade pay of Rs.4600/- which is on par with Inspectors, though being a Gazetted Group ‘B’ officer and still waiting to become a Chief Accounts Officer or those who have waited and retired from service owing to the Board not holding DPC’s on regular basis, or be it those Deputy Office Superintendents who are stagnating in the grade pay of Rs.4200/- with Senior Tax Assistants and whose existence is likely to become redundant as can be seen from the genuine efforts being put in by the Board, or be it the Tax Assistants who are graduates but being made to earn a grade pay of Rs.2400/- for no fault of theirs etc., etc.

Even after this effort, if the cadre is found sleeping, then in that situation all the present set of Office bearers in the All India Association shall consider themselves out of any criticism that may take birth consequent to this Cadre Restructuring and more so nothing much could be attained after the damage is done. Recently, we all have witnessed the entire youth of the nation coming together for a corrupt free state and the results thereto and its an earnest request that members of this Association all around the country may come ahead and support the cause which is for the overall growth of the Ministerial cadre. United we stand and divided we would fall, so do not ignore the Associations call.

Awaiting your feedback, support and initiative in starting a revolution in itself, which would finally give you a recognition in the Department where you would serve for more than three decades.




Comradely Yours,
Thomas Mony,
Secretary General