UPDATE ON THE MEETING WITH THE CHAIRMAN

Pune, the 23.11.2010

Dear Members,

As stated in the Previous post, the detailed information emerging out of the Meeting with the Chairman on the 18th January, 2011, is placed below.

The Hon’ble Chairman, Central Board of Excise & Customs welcomed all the representatives of the officers and staff associations/federations who have been actively participating in the Cadre Restructuring process, especially the constituent Associations/ Federations of the Joint Action Committee.

Thereafter, the Hon’ble Chairman directed the ADG, HRD to commence the proceedings of the meeting to which the ADG, HRD put forth a Power Point Presentation detailing the manner in which the Cadre Restructuring proposal has been prepared and how the aspirations of all cadres has been taken care of. It is noteworthy to mention that the ADG, HRD had made maximum utilization of the information inputs which is in the custody of HRD to present the case, at times by putting forth the reasoning for acceptance and/or non-consideration of submissions put forth by the respective Associations/ Federations.

Instead of briefing all our members with details, I attach herewith a Power Point presentation, which if gone through, even a lay man can understand that once again a Cadre Restructuring is being embarked upon, without taking into consideration the legitimate aspirations of the officers working in the Ministerial cadre. [Click the link provided below to download the file.]

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_wcN1t0C9s3OTBiNDA5YzAtYzU0NC00ZTdhLTgyODktM2VhNTBkYjE3ZjU1&hl=en&authkey=CN7e0NUG

While the experience, expertise and the manner in which cosmetic changes/developments have been put forth by the ADG, HRD is worth appreciating, this Association is unhappy over the manner in which its submissions are being dealt with. On casting a second look, any person would be in a position to make out that the attempt of the HRD possibly was to cater to the requirements put forth by the Executive cadres, Stenographers & the IRS Association. By doing so it has been projected that some remedial action is being taken at the Board level to mitigate the problems being faced by the members of those Associations. To what extent actual relief would be extended is yet to be seen in this regard. A small table showing the relevant demands made by the Association and the decision of the Board on the same is placed below.

However, the manner in which the aspiration of officers in the Ministerial Cadre was handled is not worth mentioning. Re-iterating the earlier stand, it was put forth by way of a presentation stating that the posts in CAO/AO grades were being increased to a very great extent, thereby reducing the stagnation in the Ministerial Heirarchy, whereas on the other end it was stated that the quantum of Inspectors vacancies that would arise would be sufficient enough to ensure that maximum Ministerial Officers would get promoted to the Executive cadre. That being so, there was not the slightest of attempt on his part to embark upon a self-study, whereby the HRD which boasts about Long Term Human Resource Plan did not even prefer to create posts in the Grade Pay of 4600 and 4800 for those neglected officers in the Ministerial Cadre serving the Department in the Cadres of Administrative Officers and Deputy Office Superintendents, and especially in a situation when the HRD itself is fully aware of the factual position that the pay scale issue with regard to these two posts has been rejected by the Department of Expenditure, thrice, thus leaving little scope to benefit on this arena, leave aside the hope that the cadre has by following up the said issues through the Departmental Anomaly Committee.

By diverting the attention of this Association stating that pay matters does not have a scope in the Cadre Restructuring process, the HRD is trying to double cross the members of this Association. As can be seen from the Cadre Restructuring proposal, there are many new posts being proposed to be created, obviously with an enhanced pay related to the post, and in the background of such a situation, this Association is left with little confusion as to what stops the HRD from creating posts that would mitigate long pending grievances and make the proposal perfect from that angle. The HRD has vide its O.M. issued under F.NO.8/B/65/HRD(HRM)/201/3439 dated 05.10.2010 forwarded the decision of the Government on the matter relating to upgradation of pay scales of Administrative Officer/Deputy Office Superintendent etc., thus putting a seal of confirmation of having knowledge of the factual position.

Considering the above situation, the HRD ought to have proposed creation of an Administrative Officer Grade III/Examiner or similar post in the Grade Pay of Rs.4600/- in PB-2 for the DOS and thereafter proposing a placement of the Administrative Officer in the Grade Pay of Rs.4800/- in PB-2. Unfortunately, the HRD has lost sight of the very basic facts and has proceeded with a Cadre Restructuring Proposal which obviously is beneficial for some specific cadres only. The Association is afraid that owing to the overburdened workload on the Hon’ble Chairman, and considering the simplicity and innocence of the Hon’ble Member (P&V), it is felt that the HRD is deciding the modalities and intricacies of the issues involved in Cadre Restructuring with the least of supervision/monitoring over it by the higher authorities, as this wing of the Department does not even have the slightest idea about the Administrative problems being faced by the Board during the past 10 years ever since the previous Cadre Restructuring, nor is aware of the historical problems of this cadre.

The ADG, HRD had during the course of presentation stated that nearly 30-35 % of the posts in the Ministerial cadres of DOS/STA have been lying unfilled consistently for more than three years and as per Department of Expenditure’s instructions any post lying vacant for more than 1 year need to be treated as abolished. Accordingly, based on the working strength of the Ministerial Cadres, the HRD has proposed the present set up in the Cadre Restructuring Proposal without even giving a slightest thought about the fact that DPCs for the post of Chief Accounts Officer does not take place once in five years, the Cadre Controlling authorities do not hold timely DPCs as per the Model Calendar, the fluctuation in the vacancy position at the time of reporting and immediately thereof does not match and other extraneous circumstances whereby the study as well as the proposed strength of Ministerial Officers envisaged in the Cadre Restructuring proposal is unacceptable to this Association. It is also pertinent to mention here that the Senior Tax Assistants are drawing the Grade Pay of Rs.4200/- in PB-2 whereas the promotional post i.e. Deputy Office Superintendent is also placed in the same scale of Rs.4200/- in PB-2. Even a person without vision could analyze the motive behind the existing form of hierarchy proposed for the Ministerial Cadre. The HRD has nullified the justifications for having a Model Commissionerate a/w Ministerial Staffing sanctioned in the previous Cadre Restructuring and so also has given a total go-bye to the recommendations made by Study Group-II in this regard. Though it is time and again repeated that the CR proposal is finalized based on the reports/ recommendations of the three Study Groups and the High Power Committee, such recommendations do not find any place in the proposal and therefore it is certain that the DG, HRD is the Author and Editor of the entire cadre review proposal independent of these reports/recommendations.

Apart from these reasons, there are many Direct Recruit Officers who are not accepting their appointment orders in the cadres of Tax Assistant as well as Inspector for the sole reason that Inter-Commissionerate Transfers has been banned from 19.02.2004 for no rhyme or reason, thus leading to non-filling up of vacancies. The ADG, HRD has undertaken a detailed study on the eligibility status of Ministerial Officers, based upon which it has been mentioned that all eligible Ministerial Officers will get promoted to the higher grades in Executive as well as Ministerial streams and that promotion quota vacancies will still remain due to unavailability of eligible officers in the feeder grades. Undoubtedly, eligibility is a by-product of timely promotions, and if promotions are denied the question of eligibility would not arise in itself, thus making the statement made by ADG, HRD sound like the gospel truth.

The Association is in the process of finalizing a representation to be submitted to the Board before 27th January, 2011, as stated by the Chairman in the meeting. The Members may be well prepared to take upon the challenge before them and see to it that the aspirations of our cadre receives due attention. Towards this goal, all the Members should remain united and rise to the occasion as and when there is a necessity.

Comradely yours,

THOMAS MONY

Secretary General