Shocking
incidents and knee-jerk action taken by the Customs authority on the basis of
an old clip which went viral on Facebook, the Customs head at Mumbai not only
suspended the officers but on 13-May-2016, also removed the chairs from the Arrival
hall of CSI Airport, Mumbai.
This
news was covered by many of Mumbai’s tabloids. It is surprising that not even a
single Grp-A officer raised their voice against this inhuman & arbitrary order.
When this news also went viral and the concerned Associations raised their
voice, then the Administration was forced to take a u-turn and on the
17-May-2016, brought back all the chairs that were removed from the customs arrival
area. The trauma / stigma / frustrations undergone by the Customs Officers who
were on duty from 13th to 17th must have been the worst
period of their career and many may not be able to forget the same.
Height
of arrogance of the concerned pax, who has declared that he is in complete
favour of the decision to restrict AIU
officers from the arrival hall… The moot question is – are the passengers going
to determine the policies in Custom formations ? On the other hand – why blame
the passengers – all of them would like to walk out through the green channel,
irrespective of what they are carrying, whether permissible or otherwise, without
being questioned or stopped by any Customs officer !!! Thus, it appears that the
senior officers are at fault, who are unable to defend any bonafide action
taken by their subordinate officers, in the discharge of their official duties.
The
incident appears to be high-handedness and could have been handled in a better
and humane manner. It is learnt from newspaper reports that this step was taken
to restrain officers of AIU from being present in the Arrival hall of the
airport and to punish the officers for checking a person who was close to the
senior customs officer. Officers posted to the airport are meant to check
smuggling and mis-declarations by pax – this can be done only through x-raying
the baggage and frisking the passenger – mere appearance is not indicative if
the pax is a bonafide one or a smuggler. Smuggling of gold by air passengers is
at its peak and instead of having stringent mechanisms to check this, such type
of decisions/action only demoralize the officers and encourage the wrongdoers.
Number
of incoming passengers at Mumbai Airport is very high and the image portrayed
by the media has definitely damaged the reputation of the Customs internationally.
Ego of a single person, coupled with misuse of power, gives rise to such type
of incidents, which dent the image of the country in general and Customs in
particular. Who is responsible for this damage ?
Earlier
also, a senior officer was charged for allegedly facilitating the clearance of
smugglers whose relative is a lawyer/counsel for the cases booked by customs. However,
he is still continuing at his post without any visible action being taken
against him and two junior officers were shunted out.
In the
instant case, on the basis of a video clip, an officer is suspended and action
is taken at lightning speed, whereas, when the allegation of running a
syndicate causing loss of hundreds of Crores to the exchequer, no action is
taken as he is a senior officer. Is this not a case of double standards…
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