Saturday, November 29, 2014
Thursday, November 27, 2014
CESA SALUTES MARTYR HEROES OF 26/11 & CONDEMN CRIMINAL FAVOURITISM
Ref: CESA/86/2014
Date:
26.11.2014
Ms.
MALA SRIVASTAVA,
Hon’ble Member,
Customs, CBEC,
Incharge of Mumbai
Zone,
New Delhi.
Respected
Madam,
Sub: - Functioning and concern of
senior officers in most sensitive Customs Preventive
Commissionerate, Mumbai – reg.
Today,
the country and Mumbai is in the mourning mood to commemorate the 26/11 tragedy
in Mumbai, wherein several innocent people were killed and top cops of Mumbai
police lost their lives because their weapons were inappropriate and they were
in short of equipments. Yesterday the
High Court of Bombay severely came out on the weapon policy of the State Government. But we have not learnt any lesson from the
tragic incident and have not geared up to tackle similar situation.
2. Madam, CESA Mumbai, vide its letter
dated 22.09.2014 requested the Commissioner (Customs) Preventive, not to keep
the post of divisional Assistant Commissioner in the field vacant or give any
additional charge to those officers and post them in Mumbai. On 31st October 2014, adequate
number of Assistant Commissioners was posted in each formation. However, the position of both the divisions’
viz., Bassein and Alibaug, remains, as it is.
CESA was compelled to take up the issue with the CC Customs vide its
letter dated 13.11.2014. But in
vain. Therefore CESA is constrained to
take up your valuable time to appraise the situation. Both the divisions are known for their
notoriety and several landings have been reported and several seizures have
taken in the past. But it is unfortunate
for the sake of penutary benefits both the divisional ACs were given additional
charge and have been kept in Headquarters.
In the field JSP, NRP, DRP are carried out regularly and for any petty
work officers from the Divisions are coming to Mumbai for Orders. Being
a preventive organization such type of arrangement is dangerous to the
formation. CESA can say, this is a
criminal favour with a malafide intention and defeating the very purpose of the
post sanctioned for the division office.
3. Madam, Mumbai people are going to
observe 26/11 anniversary but if these things come to the knowledge of the public
and that nothing has been learnt from 1993 and 26/11 incidents, the pointing
finger will be towards the department and for that ‘who is responsible’, is the
question which is to be introspected. With deep regret and anguish we bring it
to your kind notice and request to make the formation and authority responsive
to such things such lapses will not be ignored by public again and again so not
to play with national security for the comfort of some senior officers.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
A.K.
Sasmal
General
Secretary
Encl: As above.
DEDICATED FORCE REDUCED LIKE A FARCE.
Ref: CESA/85/2014
Date:
26.11.2014
Ms.
MALA SRIVASTAVA,
Hon’ble Member,
Customs, CBEC,
Incharge of Mumbai
Zone,
New Delhi.
Respected
Madam,
Sub: - Creation of Infrastructure
Cell in Mumbai to implement CR smoothly
and office of own for CC Service Tax’s office, Service Tax
commissionerate
I to VII, Service Tax Audit Commissionerate - Reg.
Kindly
find enclosed herewith our letter Ref. No. CESA/82/2014 dated 20.11.2014
addressed to the Chief Commissioner Central Excise Mumbai Zone –I & II on
the above subject matter. CR was projected and got approved and
rolled out with an intention to yield more revenue as well as to improve the
career progression of the staff. Mumbai
Service Tax zone, which fetches 30% of the total revenue, has strategically
failed in all front, to provide even basic facilities to the staff who are
supposed to strive their best for more revenue to the exchequer.
2. In paper,
two Commissionerates of Service tax has been split to seven Commissionerates
and three Audit Commissionerates and two more Audit Commissionerates for
central Excise and one Audit Commissionerate for LTU Mumbai. Orders have been issued, lower staff has been
posted and relieved and additional charges of the Commissionerates is given to
the current Commissionerates to run the affairs. The intention of the Board is not to
humiliate the staff rather to motivate the staff so that their services can be
properly utilized to the optimum.
3. Service Tax needs around 4 lakhs sq. ft
for its office premises. Around 1 lakh
sq. ft is in the pipeline. And there is no proposal for the remaining 3 lakh
sq. ft. Space cannot be shaped, cannot
be created can only be acquired through rent or on lease basis. Can
your goodself, being an incharge of the zone, allow to run the sorry state of
affairs, like this.
4. The
third quarter of the financial year is going on and the last quarter is fast
approaching, but the officers of the Service Tax do not have an office of their
own, computers, and other infrastructure, forget about offering hospitality to
the trade as well as housing facility for the staff. The position of the officers, is worse than a
chicken in a poultry farm, even they have some space in the baskets. But the officers having put in 20 to 30 years
of service are at the mercy of others.
On the other hand austerity on any count is not visible as far as the
seniors are concerned, which aggravates the agony and frustrations,
further.
5. Madam,
being incharge of Mumbai Zone we request that our suggestion of creating an
infrastructure cell at Mumbai directly reporting to DGHRD and to expedite the
matters of hiring of building for newly created offices and providing the basic
infrastructure in that for smooth functioning is extremely necessary. Targets are fixed to achieve revenue from
Mumbai but not for improving the working conditions, needs immediate attention.
6. CESA,
Mumbai requests your goodself to bestow some time for this very basic and
genuine problem which directly leaves an impact and tarnish the image of the
Department and also effect the tax collection, substantially.
Thanking
you,
Yours sincerely,
A.K.
Sasmal
General
Secretary
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
SIMPLICITY OR COMPLEXITY ??
IT IS AN INSULT TO THOSE WHO HAS TOILED HARD TO ROLL OUT CR, THE DIGNITY IS LOST,
HUMILIATION BECOME A TREND & DEDICATED WORKFORCE REDUCING LIKE A FARCE.
---NO VISION OR IS IT A CLEAR
INTENTION TO INSULT &HUMILIATE THE CADRE THOSE WHO ARE ASPIRING FOR
PROMOTION----
Sunday, November 23, 2014
AADHAR BASED BIO-METRIC ATTENDANCE SYSTEM FOR ALL CENTRAL GOVT EMPLOYEES BEFORE 26.1.2015
No: 11013/9/2014- Estt (A-III)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel & Training
New Delhi, dated 21st November 2014.
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Sub: Introduction of AADHAR Enabled Bio-metric Attendance System
It has been decided to use an AADHAR Enabled Bio-metric Attendance System (AEBAS) in all offices of the Central Government, including attached/ sub-ordinate Offices, in India. The system will be installed in the offices located in Delhi/ New Delhi by 31st December 2014. In other places this may be installed by 26th January 2015
2. The equipment will be procured by the Ministries/ Departments as per specifications of DeitY on DGS&D Rate Contract from authorized vendors. The expenditure will be met by the Ministries/ Departments concerned under their O.E. The manual system of attendance may be phased out accordingly.
3. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will provide the technical guidance for installing the system. The equipment already procured by DeitY have a built in AMC of three years. The Ministries/ departments may ensure that the equipment being procured by them have similar provision.
4. Biometric attendance system is only an enabling platform. There is no change in the instructions relating to office hours, late attendance etc. which will continue to apply. As per extant instructions, (contained in DoPT O.M. No: 28034/8/75- Estt-A dated 04-07-1975; No:28034/10/75-Estt-A dated 27-08-1975; No: 28034/3/82 —Estt-A dated 05-03-1982) half—a-day’s Casual Leave should be debited for each day of late attendance, but late attendance upto an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, and for justifiable reasons may be condoned by the competent authority. In addition to debiting Casual Leave (or Earned Leave, when no CL is available). Disciplinary action may also be taken against government servants who are habitually late. Early leaving is also to be treated in the same manner as late coming.
5. These orders come into force with immediate effect.
6. All Ministries/ Departments are requested to bring this to the notice of all concerned.
(J.A Vaidyanathan)
Director (Establishment)
Thursday, November 20, 2014
SPECIAL INFRASTRUCTURE CELL
Before Reorganization of the commissionerates, CESA requested to have an ADG, HRM office for Mumbai so that all the infrastructure related work can be processed smoothly and expeditiously as the Bombay is having acute shortage of office Space as well as staff quarters. Board has ignored the request reason is best known to them as they do not want to de-centralize their authority, however CESA continues to strive for better infrastructure. Latest communication is as under:
Shri V. S. Krishnan
The Hon’ble Chief Commissioner,
Central Excise Zone I & Service Tax zone,
Mumbai.
Respected Sir,
Sub:
Request for creation of infrastructure cell
for the new Service Tax
Commissionerates
and Audit Commissionerates – Reg.
Consequent
upon the implementation of the CR and reorganization of the Commissionerates of
the zones in Mumbai, Trade notice was issued by the respective CC’s of Zone I
and Zone II. Accordingly new
Commissionerates have been formed, i.e the two Service Tax Commissionerates
have been split into 7 Service Tax Commissionerates
and 3 ST-Audit Commissionerates. Service
Tax I and II Commissionerates are functioning on as and where is basis, without
acquiring or occupying any new premises.
Transfer orders posting the officers to the newly formed ST Commissionerates
have been issued. The officers who have
joined their new postings do not even have any place to sit.
The
space position in LTU, Mumbai, is also alarming and it has been aggravated
further with the formation of new Mumbai LTU-Audit Commissionerate, which needs
immediate attention for smooth Administration.
As
per the requirement, excluding the present occupied space, we further require
around 4.0 lakhs sq. ft approximately. We appreciate your constant monitoring
and follow-up with the Board, due to which the proposal for acquiring Lotus building
was sanctioned. Even after considering
the space which we will acquire through Lotus building, we still fall short of
about 3.65 lakh sq. ft of space.
Sir,
the work-load of Service Tax is already beyond manageable levels and both the Commissioners,
Shri. Sushil Solankhiji and Shri R. Sekharji, are somehow managing the show by putting
in more hours over & above the office hours, even on weekly holidays and it
would be unfair to expect them to spare any more time for additional infrastructure
issues. Therefore, for the convenience
of the staff, trade and administration, it is requested to form an
Infrastructure Committee for identifying, processing & follow-up of infrastructure
issues exclusively to cater to the requirement of present infrastructure
requirements.
The proposal to acquire the premises
at AIR INDIA building for Service
Tax and MTNL building at Borivali &
Thane for Central Excise, Ist floor at ABHA building at Kalyan for Central
Excise are still under process. If all
the proposals are centralized and monitored, then it will be easy to pass
through all the formalities/checklist prescribed by the DGHRD and it will be
easier to acquire them for our requirements.
Sir, it will be worth mentioning, that after
reorganization of the Commissionerates, we are striving to acquire new office
premises, for their smooth functioning.
It is also true that we are one step behind, in looking for office
premises. We are several steps behind,
in looking for accommodation for the officers i.e. staff quarters/transit
accommodation. In Mumbai, newly joined
officers of any cadre, cannot afford to acquire rental premises, leave alone purchase/have
their own house. Thus they are solely
dependent on Government quarters or rental premises. The rent for residence, in Mumbai, is so high
that they are forced to go to far off suburbs, which increases their commute
time apart from causing inconvenience, which will compel them to leave this department
for other departments/for inter Commissionerate transfers to their native place
under some pretext or other.
The speed of growth of Service Tax is beyond
manageable limits and we cannot wait for the completion of the Suleiman Estate
project at Wadala. The construction at
Suleiman Estate has not yet started and its completion is not visible in the
near likely future. Hence the consolation or advice to accommodate in the said
project, is a distant dream; moreover Service Tax and Central Excise are
jurisdiction based and not like Customs which is port or place based.
Mumbai
Zone II, Pune Zone and DGCEI have issued advertisements for office premises,
for their infrastructure requirements.
Similarly, an advertisement can be placed in the magazines for our seven
new Service Tax commissionerates, three Service Tax Audit Commissionerates
& two Service Tax Commissioner (Appeals).
Unless work is specifically assigned to some officers and they made
responsible, there will not be any improvement on the infrastructure front, &
we will unfortunately end in blaming each other and the end result is that the
Service Tax Commissionerates will remain in the same pathetic state of affairs.
CESA
expects the above suggestions be considered judiciously and acted upon
expeditiously and will create a committee/cell exclusively for infrastructure. This
request is in consonance with the instructions of the Director General of
DGHRD, made under letter F No.: D.O.No.924/16/Hiring/Cadre
Restructuring/HRD/2013 dated 1st Oct. 2014. CESA will extend its
fullest co-operation and render all sort of assistance in this regard.
Thanking
you,
Yours sincerely,
A.K. Sasmal
General Secretary
Copy to:
1. Commissioner, Central Excise, Mumbai I, Thane I, Thane II,
Mumbai IV, for kind information.
2. Commissioner, Service Tax I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII, for kind
information.
3. Commissioner, LTU, Mumbai, for kind information.
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