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Central Excise Superintendents’ Association, Mumbai
Unit of AIACEGEO
( Recognized under F. No. B-12017/10/206-Ad-IV A dtd.
21-01-2008 ).
V.A. Kolhatkar, President A.K. Sasmal-General Secretary
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Mumbai
I, II,
III, V, Thane I, II, Belapur,
Raigad, Customs Prev,, Service Tax – I & II Comm’te & L.T.U. Mumbai.
CIRCULAR No. 2/2013
Dear Member,
The developments within our
Department of the Metro city and Commercial Capital were conveyed through the
Circular 1/2013. Association has also conveyed the resentment brewing up
amongst the Cadres in CBEC at local level as well as the National level.
Friends,
despite our patient approach Administration did nothing to resolve the issues
and the most agonizing part of the state of affairs are, at local level it
seems that the Administration is so cruel and insensitive that our officers are
even dying for want of medical assistance as necessary financial help does not reach
the officer. In contrast we witnessed several cases of Gr “A” officers their
applications were processed in jet speed and sanctioned without any query and
disbursed in time. In Mumbai due to
stress 16 Supdts have taken VRS – plus there
are several cases of heart attacks, ventilator cases, and medical leave etc.. But the Administration never bothered to
inquire into this health break-down among field staff. In Service Tax, Mumbai is grossly
understaffed to cater the quantum of ever increasing work. Junior staff are pressurized beyond their
capacity and prescribed office hours to attend the work with the existing
facilities and amenities by sacrificing their personal and family life. Several
posts of Assistant Commissioners are lying vacant and giving additional charge
after additional charge, but Board is not promoting promotee officers to
Assistant Commissioner’s grade in time. Issues
like non-filling of posts, pay anomalies and clear promotions which are due are
hounding the minds of the officers. It is disgraceful when the Senior Officers
who learn A,B,C,D… of excise from the Superintendents 20 years back at the time
of probation and after getting time bound promotions and became Commissioners are
using derogatory words that….. is really painful and unbearable. Recently
somebody has rightly said Government’s jobs are not for business … but to
provide good Governance and Administration. But it is unfortunate those who are
in helm of Administration are least concerned to the junior staff but are
concerned about their posts till retirement, and thereafter seek jobs in
CESTAT, Settlement Commissioner, Advance Ruling etc. forgetting good Governance
and Administration in their present meetings
AGITATION
PROGRAMME:
The
Secretary General of A.I.A.C.E.G.E.O, New
Delhi
It is the same Board which
had called the Office Bearers on 23.02.2012 for discussions and upon its
assurance that the issues would be examined, the agitation then called, i.e.
boycott of the Central Excise Day, was withdrawn. By doing so, the Board
succeeded in keeping our burning issues in cold storage and also succeeded in
creating rift amongst the JAC members as well Federating Units of the All India
Bodies.
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Address for
correspondence
Shiv-Gaurav,
Flat No. 10, Plot No. 16, Shiv Ganga Nagar,
Ambernath (E) – 421 501.
e-mail
: sasmal1@indiatimes.com. Tel. : (0251) 2603806; Cell : 09820950885
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All our issues, i.e. Cadre
Restructuring, MACP, Working condition, etc., are still in the air. The
proposal of cadre restructuring was prepared as suited to the career
progression of the Group ‘A’ Officers at the cost of downsizing the lower
cadres. When specific queries are raised to such disproportionate proposal, the
Board is unable to reply to such queries, as a result the cadre restructuring
is being prolonged and inordinately delayed.
Finance Minister stated in the
WCO function on 5th February 2013 “Cadre review will be considered on priority basis if C.B.E.C. would
provide clarification for the points raised by him.” The Board has submitted reply to the
queries made by the Finance Minister on 7th February, 2013
Similarly, since the MACP
issue is not concerning the Group ‘A’ cadre, there is no serious effort to
resolve the same and we are deprived of the proper benefits as due to us.
Similar is the case with working conditions of our Officers. The most glaring example of the Board’s
discriminatory approach to our issues is the delay in implementation of the
Hon’ble Supreme Court’s decision on changing of ratio with retrospective/effect.
During the olden days of
Monarchy before democracy, the King used to reach people during night in
disguise or discreetly to ascertain their condition in real, and to know about
his image amongst the common people. The kings were righteous to deliver
instant justice and to take care of the people’s well being. Those days are
history. Now people in the helm of the power in our department are totally
detached from the ground reality and insensitive to the pains and problems
faced by their staff. When it comes to their rights and facilities, these very
Superior Officers at power are prepared to go to any extent to achieve their
goals, even by diverting the benefits of the lower staff. It is also known to
everyone that the use of the funds under 1% incremental revenue, is exclusively
for the higher ups in spite of the fact that the lower staff don’t even have
proper chair to sit, sometimes one chair is
shared with two or more staff. In Service Tax- I Mumbai Officers on loan
basis even purchased tables and chairs from their own pocket. Such
discriminatory and insensitive approach of the superior Officers is only
worsening the working conditions of the lower staff and also demoralizing.
Silent mode: Presently, the hierarchy of
Group ‘A’ Officers is on silent mode, i.e. the AC/DC remain silent before
Joint/Additional Commissioner, and the JC/Additional remain silent before the
Commissioner and so on. The Culture of ‘silent mode’ has spread to such an
extent that during the conference/meetings with Chief Commissioner all the
participants remain silent. Even in the Chief Commissioners conference every
body prepared to remain in silent mode. Thus, as a result, the staff related
issues are never taken up, discussed and brought before the concerned superior
Officers. Due to such ‘silent’ approach of the superiors all issues relating to
the staff have remained unattended/unresolved. By remaining on Silent Mode they
gain because they have a career progression. But can we remain silent when
continuously injustice is caused to us in all aspects? It is enough now and
time has come to stand united and to act upon
Time to Show our existence: Time has come to show our
existence. In the prevailing condition and the approach of the Administration
at the local as well as at the Ministry level, due to persistent neglect for
decades towards legitimate demands, even by going to the extent of ignoring
specific orders of CAT/High Court/Supreme Court, no option is left with us but
to adopt the Agitation path, as no other platform is available to us.
As per the call given by the
AIACEGEO, the programme of Agitation is as under–
Ø
Ø Boycott
of Central Excise Day Function:
Ø Protest
week from 25.02.2013 to 01.03.2013 by wearing ‘Black Badges’;
Ø Lunch
Hour demonstration on 01.03.2013;
Ø ‘Work
to Rule’ in relation of Budget related and revenue
collection/mobilization/motivation work; and
Ø Mass
resignation on 30.04.2013 under protest.
Further, there is no
improvement in the working condition in Service Tax Commissionerates,
therefore, as per CESA Resolution dated 11.01.2013., to express our resentment
over the poor working condition despite maximum revenue from Mumbai, we will
protest for one day on 22.02.2013 by
attending the work from the open area near the offices, even if it is a road
adjacent to the building.
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The President and Secretary
General of AIACEGO have tried best and have given mass coverage in print as
well as electronic media and also in various websites to gear up and mobilize
the members to make the proposed agitation successful. The Inspectors
Federation i.e. AICEIA will also participate in the agitation programme and gave
a notice to boycott the Central Excise Day function,
Dear Members, the Administration in the
pretext of Conduct Rules, will attempt to create a fear and confusion in the
minds of the members. There is no need to panic. Dear member, kindly recall the
agitation/protest of general public after the recent infamous Delhi
The Office Bearers of CESA
Mumbai will visit your places in the coming weeks i.e. LTU, Madhu Indl. Estate,
Dharavi, Mumbai – V, Wagle Estate, Belapur & Raigad etc., for mobilization
and active participation. Black badges will be provided at your offices. Posters will be placed for publicity and
awareness. The appeal of President of AIACEGEO dated 08.02.2013 is annexed. For updated news in this regard kindly log on
to aiacegeo2013.blogspot.com/cengoindiablogspot and cesamumbai2013blogspot. com
and make the Agitational programme a grand success.
We are responsible for our own lives – no other person is
or even can be. Life shrinks or expands
in proportion to one’s courage.
“LET US UNITE AND FIGHT FOR JUSTICE”.
Encl. : as above.
Yours sincerely
A.K.
Sasmal
Mumbai, 11/02/2013. General
Secretary
vvvvv
Ref
: CESA/18/2013
Hon’ble Chief Commissioner,
Central Excise, Zone – I. & II,
Customs Zone – III, Mumbai
Sub
: Notice of Agitation on 25.02.13 to 01.03.13 and
boycott of Central Excise Day function
– reg…
Respected Sir / Madam,
Please find enclosed herewith the
notice of agitation issued to Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India by
The All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers and
copy endorsed to Hon’ble MOS, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance,
Hon’ble Secretary, Department of Revenue and Hon’ble Chairperson, C.B.E.C., New
Delhi on 31.12.2012.
The Central Excise Superintendents’
Association, Mumbai being the Federating Unit of A.I.A.C.E.G.E.O, it’s all
members i.e. all the Superintendents from Zone – I and Zone – II, Zone – III,
Customs and L.T.U., Mumbai will participate in the agitation which will be held
on 25.02.2013 to 01.03.2013 wearing
black badges and lunch hour demonstration as per the scheduled programme and
also boycott of Central Excise day function and will observe “work to
rule” as regards to revenue mobilization and budget related work.
This is for your kind information.
Thanking you,
Encl. : as above. Yours
sincerely
Sd/….
A.K. Sasmal
General Secretary
Copy
to:
1. Hon’ble
Commissioner, Central Excise, Mumbai I,
II, III, V, Thane I, II, Belapur, Raigad, Customs Prev,,
Service Tax – I & II Comm’te & L.T.U. Mumbai for kind information.
2. All India
Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers, New Delhi
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APPEAL
TO ALL MEMBERS OF AIACEGEO
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To,
All Members of
AIACEGEO,
(Through:
President/General Secretary of all Units)
Comrades,
Sub- ‘Agitation against delay in Approval of
cadre Restructuring, non implementation of Apex Court order dated 03.08.11
retrospectively as per judgement & Other related issues’.
The All
India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers ,
the organization representing about 11,800 Gazetted Executive Officers of
the Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax Department, has
embarked upon an agitation programme from 25/09/2012, demanding immediate
approval of Cadre Restructuring proposal of CBEC without any cut as cleared by
the D/O Expenditure, implementation of Apex Court Order dated 03.08.11
retrospectively as per judgement, granting of GP-5400 in PB-3 to the grade of
Superintendent of Central Excise w.e.f 01.01.2006 , introduction of in situ
scheme to remove stagnation etc.. The department is already facing acute
shortage of manpower both at the staff and officers level, especially at the
cutting edge level i.e. Assistant Commissioners who are playing a
very crucial role in revenue collection.
Near
about 8000 nos. of Superintendents have completed 30 year of services as
Inspectors and Superintendents combinedly at present and waiting for
their promotion to Gr-A. The Inspectors who are joining in the department as
direct recruit are retiring by getting one promotion to the grade of
Superintendent in their service career. Whereas those similar placed
employees who are joining in Income Tax department or in CSS or as Examiner in
Customs are getting almost 5 to 6 promotions in their service career, While
1992 batch Examiners are being promoted to the grade of Asst. Commissioner, the
1975 batch Inspectors are still Superintendents and are being forced to work
under the 1992 batch of Examiners who are quite juniors to them in
service. The parity is the basic concept of our Constitution, parity in
promotion is required to be maintained amongst the similar placed employees of
same department, but till date the Govt. of India have not initiated any action
to maintain parity in promotion amongst the Examiners/Preventive Officers and
Inspectors of CBEC. The educational qualification, mode of recruitment and
Grade Pay for these post are similar. The Examiner, Preventive Officers and
Inspectors are being recruited by the same examination conducted by SSC. The
Honourable Apex Court
Considering
the utter frustration of Superintendents who are languishing
without any promotion for around 18/20 years and being forced to work under
their natural juniors by 17 years, AIACEGEO had served a notice dated
31.12.12, on the Finance Minister of India informing about the proposed
agitation starting from 24.02.13, if all the 10 points charter of demands
are not accepted by 31.01.13 . The Member(P&V) has called us on
31.01.13 for discussions and requested to allow further time but we refused to
allow any more time as in every months around 100 nos. of our members are
retiring without getting any promotion to Gr-A. As the
CBEC has failed to meet the deadline, AIACEGEO is constrained
to adopt the following mode of agitation :
a. Boycott Excise Day on 24.02.13.
b. No extra work for Budget or collection of
revenue to achieve target if any.
c. Only time-barring assessment work to be
undertaken.
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d. Wearing
of Black-badge from 24.02.13 to 01.03.13 & lunch
hours demonstration with slogans on 01.03-2013
e. Non-
attending of official duty beyond official hours and holidays (including
Saturday and Sunday) etc.
f. Mass resignations on 30.04.13.
The
agitation will be further intensified ( if maximum of our
Units are furnished their willingness to apply for mass casual leave
during the last week of March 2013 or 1st week of April, 2013.)
The
above are the decisions of All India Body of AIACEGEO, all the affiliated Units
are required to implement the same without any deviation. If any unit will
deviate the approved programme, the same will be viewed in the next AEC meeting
of our Association.
AICEIA
has committed moral support for the above agitation, as the Cadre Review
& Restructuring will provide adequate staff & officers, moreover if all
the demands as raised by AIACEGEO will be accepted then all most all Inspectors
will be benefited . Further these demands will surely boost the Revenue,
which is primary for sustaining the developmental work undertaken by the
Government.
AIACEGEO(Pre)/Agitation/2012-13 (LOKANATH
MISHRA)
Dated 08.02.13 PRESIDENT
Ref. No. 93/A/12
Dt. 31.12.12
To,
Sh. P. Chidambaram,
The Hon’ble Finance Minister,
Govt. of India ,
New Delhi
Sub: Protest week from
25.02.13 to 01.03.13-notice reg.
Sir,
Kindly refer to-
i) the Ref. No. 66/A/12 Dt. 29.10.12 of the
Association,
ii) the meeting of the Association held with the Member (P&V) of
CBEC on 02.11.12 as well as
iii) the letter F. No. 8/B/139/HRD
(HRM)/2012 Dt. 14.11.12 of CBEC issued to the Association on the directions of
the Member (P&V) of CBEC.
2.
It is submitted with due regards that the charter of demands as submitted by
the Association on 29.10.12 alongwith the other points was discussed in the
meeting of 02.11.12 under the Chairpersonship of the Member (P&V) of
CBEC. Her goodself was pleased to assure us to settle all the grievances within
three months. She was further pleased to appeal us to defer our agitational
programme for 3 months. Accordingly after the due approval by the Member (P&V) of CBEC, the ADG (HRM)
of HRD of CBEC issued the above referred letter F. No. 8/B/139/HRD (HRM)/2012 Dt. 14.11.12 to the
Association asking to defer the agitational programme. As a result, the
programme was deferred.
3.
But it is further submitted with the great disappointment that even not a
single point has yet been settled by the CBEC despite of the assurance
given by the worthy Member (P&V) to settle our grievances in the time bound
manner. It has, therefore, been unanimously decided in the Associate
Committee meeting of the Association to revive the agitational programme
during the month of February of 2013, if all the points/grievances are not
settled in the time bound manner within 31.01.13.
4.
At the cost of repetition, it is again submitted that our members are
retiring in PB2 after getting only one promotion in the service career on
account of decades long acute stagnation while other counterparts of ours
are retiring in PB4 after getting 5-6 promotions. Our members are deprived of
the appropriate pay scale/pay band & grade pay. They are facing the
worst career prospects and working conditions. They are getting merely a
grade pay of Rs. 5400/- on IIIrd MACP upgradation while other counterparts are
getting Rs. 7600/-. They are getting promotion (if any) merely to a Junior Time
Scale post while other counterparts are getting to Senior Time Scale post. The
employee grievance redressal mechanism has totally failed as the
administration has no interest to redress the staff grievances. The
members are forced to work under the extreme juniors of Customs belonging
to the same cadre. The cadre restructuring is pending with the government
for last 6 years while the next one is already due. The members have nothing to
be job-satisfied or motivated. The concerned authorities are taking
nothing seriously in relation of any of the issues.
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5.
In view of the above, the Association is forced to
revive the agitational programme.
Accordingly, this notice is being served upon intimating that-
(i) Our members would observe protest
week from 25.02.13 to 01.03.13 by wearing black badges, would have
peaceful demonstration in lunch hours on 01.03.13 and would totally
boycott the Excise Day function on 24.02.13 throughout the
country.
(ii) The members will also observe only “work to rule” in relation of budget
related & revenue collection/mobilisation/motivation work and will make
only the formal/official efforts to achieve the revenue target without adopting
any extra/personal measures.
(iii) As a next step, all of our
members may also submit mass resignations on 30.04.13 under protest.
6.
The charter of the demands is enclosed herewith.
Thanking
you,
Yours
faithfully,
Sd/….
Encl: Charter of
demands.
(RAVI MALIK),
Secretary General.
Copy with the
request for necessary action to-
1) The MOS,
Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, North Block, New Delhi
2) The Secretary,
Department of Revenue, North Block, New
Delhi
3) The
Chairperson, CBEC, North Block, New
Delhi
Charter
of demands
1. Immediate implementation of the cadre restructuring
without any cut as already approved by the Expenditure. All proposed
posts to be approved permanently and be filled-up by promotions only alongwith
all posts likely to be vacant within 5 years of implementation
of cadre restructuring without any direct recruitment in group ‘A’ during the
period.
2. Parity
with other counterparts of CSS, CBDT etc. either in the cadre restructuring or
independent of it to retire our officers also in PB-4.
3. Immediate fulfilment of the
commitments like ‘all the
vacancies of cadre restructuring to be filled up by promotions & extend
this benefit for more than 1 years’, ‘creation of separate service for group
‘B’ executive officers’, ‘promotion of group ‘B’ gazetted executive officer
directly to STS like CSS’, ‘minimum qualifying service for promotion to
gazetted post should be uniform for Inspector, PO & Examiner’, ‘all
Inspectors, PO’s & Examiners of same year should be brought to same level
of promotion’ etc. etc. made during the
presentation on cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 in consonance of the
submissions made by the Association vide its Ref. No. 13/11 Dt. 27.01.11.
4. At least four functional promotions in the service
career.
5. Immediate implementation of the Supreme Court verdict
dt. 03.08.11/30.03.12 by framing “just, fair & equitable” recruitment rules
and abiding all the ad hoc promotions with the same duly granting notional
promotions to the seniors of Central Excise whose juniors of Customs have
already been promoted.
6. Initial grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- in PB3 to the
Superintendents of Central Excise w.e.f. the date of the grant of this grade
pay/equivalent pay scale to the other analogous counterparts of IB, CBI etc.
7. Time-scale in PB3 instead of PB2 to the
Superintendents completing 4 years of service and promotions to all
Superintendents directly to the post of Deputy Commissioner (STS
post) to maintain parity between the officers of headquarters
organisations & field offices. Also counting of regular service in
non-discriminatory manner as compared to CSS etc.
8. At least a grade pay of Rs. 6,600-/ & 7,600/- on
IInd & IIIrd MACP upgradation without offsetting with time scale on the
lines of MACPS adopted by the State Governments like Uttar Pradesh etc. or even
on better lines on account of the originating source (i.e., 6th CPC)
being the same.
9. Finalisation of in-situ promotion scheme under
consultation of the Association.
10. Holding
of regular minuted meetings under employee grievances redressal mechanism.
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