THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT EVENTS TOOK PLACE DURING THE LAST WEEK, WHICH ARE BROUGHT TO THE NOTICE OF THE MEMBERS : -
1. A BLOOD DONATION CAMP AT HELD AT C.R. BUILDING, 17-C, CHANDIGARH, WHEREIN 63 DONORS DONATED BLOOD TO PGMIER, CHANDIGARH.
2. NEXT CIRCLE EXECUTIVE MEET HAS BEEN SCHEDULED AT CFS SAHNEWAL, LUDHIANA, ON 07.12.2012;
3. A LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONER, CHANDIGARH-1 REGARDING TRANSFER POLICY HAS BEEN WRITTEN, WHICH IS BEING REPRODUCED BELOW.
4. A REPRESENTATION HAS BEEN SENT TO THE VARIOUS AUTHORITIES IN THE CBEC AND SECRETARY, DOPT REGARDING INJUSTICE BEING DONE TO THE CADRE OF GROUP B EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, WHICH IS ALSO BEING REPRODUCED BELOW. THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED TO KINDLY GO THROUGH THE REPRESENTATION AND SEND THEIR INDIVIDUAL REPRESENTATIONS IF SO DESIRED AS EXPEDITIOUSLY AS POSSIBLE.
WITH REGARDS,
BHAGWAN SINGH
GENERAL SECRETARY.
To
1. The
Revenue Secretary,
Govt. of India, Ministry of Finance,
Department of Revenue, New Delhi.
2. The
Chairman,
Central Board of Excise & Customs,
North Block, New
Delhi,
3. The
Director General (HRD),
Central Board of Excise & Customs,
Ministry of Finance, Deepshikha
Building, New Delhi.
4. The
Member (P&V),
Central Board of Excise & Customs,
North Block, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi.
5. The
Chief Commissioner,
Central Excise, Chandigarh Zone, Sector 17C,
Chandigarh.
(THROUGH PROPER CHANNEL)
The Secretary, Deptt. Of Personnel & Training,
Govt. of India,
New Delhi.
Subject: - Representation to remove stagnation and
regarding injustice being done in the restructuring as per restructuring
proposal.
Sir,
1.
Your kind attention is drawn to the fact that there
is acute stagnation in the cadres of Inspectors and Superintendent in Central
Excise, and despite many representations by the members of the association as
well as by the All India Central Excise Inspectors Association and its
Circle/Branch bodies, no positive steps for remedial measure have been taken in
this regard. This has resulted in miscarriage of justice and infringed the
fundamental rights of the officers belonging to these cadres. Being the Circle
body of All India Central Excise Inspectors Association representing its
members in Chandigarh Zone ( hereinafter referred to as the Association) , it
is once again represented as under : -
2.
That the members of Association, who joined in
January,993 as Inspectors are still awaiting their first promotion despite the
having completed nearly 20 years . The applicants joined service on the basis of SSC Examination held in 1991
and interview held in 1992 on the basis of the common selection test conducted
by the SSC for the posts of Inspectors of Central Excise, Inspectors of Customs
(Preventive officers) and Inspectors (Examiners), Inspectors of Income Tax
etc., under the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Govt. of India and
for certain other posts falling under other Ministries.
3.
That the posts of Inspectors of Central Excise and
Inspectors of Customs (Preventive Officers and Examiners) under the CBEC have
been trifurcated into different categories by the CBEC. The functions of the
Central Excise Inspectors/Superintendents are much more than those of
Inspectors of Customs (Preventive Officers and examiners) as the latter work
only on the customs side, but the former have to work in Central Excise,
Service Tax and Customs side.
4. That the maintenance of
separate seniority lists of Inspectors of Central Excise, Examiners of Customs
and Preventive Officers of Customs at Zonal Levels and effecting promotions on
the basis of these seniority lists itself has led to great disparities in the
promotional avenues of these categories of single cadre of Inspector recruited
through the same competitive examination in the same organization of CBEC with
same nature of job and administrative hierarchy. This has resulted higher
seniority to extreme juniors as the Examiners of Customs are reaching the level
of Addl. Commissioner or even Commissioner (5/6 promotions) while the most of
the Inspectors of Central Excise are retiring as Superintendent (only 1
promotion. This has made an irrecoverable and huge difference in their salary,
pension and other retirement benefits despite of performing same nature of
duties. This adds to the agony of those Inspectors of Central Excise, who have
been waiting their first promotion for more than 20 years in certain Zones against the qualifying
service of 8 years fixed under the Recruitment rules while the Examiners of
Customs are getting first promotion within 4/5 years and even 3 years in some
cases on account of their qualifying service being 3 years for next promotion.
Prescribing different qualification services of 8 years, 8 years and 3 years
for analogous cadres of Inspectors of Central Excise, Inspectors ( Preventive
Officers) and Inspectors of Customs ( Examiners) respectively for promotion to
the next hierarchical post of Superintendent of Central Excise, Superintendent
of Customs and Appraisers is against the principles of Right of equality (
Article 14, and 16 of Indian Constitution) and against the canons of natural
justice and equity and also against the principles of administrative efficiency.
Thus, these recruitment rules for these categories have been framed without the
application of mind ignoring general norms of DOPT and are arbitrary,
irrational, illegal and against the principles of law and justice and are
liable to be quashed.
5. That the direct recruitment
to the posts of Appraisers (under CBEC) through UPSC has been discontinued
since 2000 and these posts are filled only by way of promotion from the feeder
cadres of STA/DOS etc., which is again illegal, unjust and unfair. The Inspectors
of
Central Excise have not been included in the feeder cadre for promotion to the grade of Appraisers, though they have better experience in the matter relating to the job of Customs
Examination, which is also done by them in various ICDs / EOUs / SEZs etc. Further, the STAs selected through Staff Selection Commission on All India merit in different zones of the country under CBEC have also not been included in the feeder cadres for promotion to the Grade of Appraisers, which is illegal, unjust, fair and malafide, and against the principles of justice and equity and in direct conflict with the Fundamental Rights of Equality in the matters of Service and promotion of the candidates belonging to these cadres. The post of appraisers should have been abolished and merged with the analogous cadres from 2000 onwards itself, which was not done by the CBEC due to malafide and wrong policies.
Central Excise have not been included in the feeder cadre for promotion to the grade of Appraisers, though they have better experience in the matter relating to the job of Customs
Examination, which is also done by them in various ICDs / EOUs / SEZs etc. Further, the STAs selected through Staff Selection Commission on All India merit in different zones of the country under CBEC have also not been included in the feeder cadres for promotion to the Grade of Appraisers, which is illegal, unjust, fair and malafide, and against the principles of justice and equity and in direct conflict with the Fundamental Rights of Equality in the matters of Service and promotion of the candidates belonging to these cadres. The post of appraisers should have been abolished and merged with the analogous cadres from 2000 onwards itself, which was not done by the CBEC due to malafide and wrong policies.
6. That the residency period
for promotion to the next post in the hierarchical order of Central Excise
Superintendent from Inspector of Central Excise has been fixed as 8 years as
against the residency period of 3 years for Inspectors of Customs (Examiners)
for next promotion as Superintendent of Customs and Appraisers, which is
without any justification, illegal and unknown to the principles of natural
justice and divine law.
7. That due to the faulty and
wrong policies followed by the CBEC, there has been acute stagnation in the
cadre of Group B Officers ( i.e. Inspectors of Central Excise and
Superintendents of Central Excise), as has been admitted by the High Power
Committee appointed by the CBEC in its report.
8. That the HPC committee in
its report has inter-alia recommended for creation of separate Group B Service
under CBEC by promoting the officers senior to the junior most officer promoted
in India.
It has suggested that this will remove the inter-regional disparities in
promotion of officers working in different Zones.
9. That in the restructuring
exercises conducted during the years 1997-98 and 2001-02, there was least
interest shown towards removal of the genuine grievances of the Group B
Executive officers especially Inspectors and Superintendents of Central Excise
working under the Central Board of Excise & Customs i.e. by granting time
bound promotions and by creating suitable numbers of posts in the next
promotional grades. In this regard, it is pertinent to reproduce an observation
of the Standing Committee on Finance (2005-06) in para 75 of its report, which
reads thus “In CBEC, the posts of Chief Commissioner have been increased by
123.80% and at the level of Inspector there has been decrease of 14.32%.
Nevertheless, the Committee are led to
the conclusion that the restructuring proposal was done in a manner that those
to ignore the requirements of the middle and lower level of the functionaries…”.
Similarly, the next Reports of the Standing Committee on Finance have also
pointed out that the policies regarding the human resource development in the
CBEC are skewed against the Group B and
C officers.
C officers.
10. That the Inspectors (
Examiners and Preventive Officers) who
joined the Department much later than the applicant have been promoted long
ago, resulting in gross miscarriage of justice and adversely effecting the
career of the applicant. Hence, the
applicant needs to be promoted and brought at par with the Inspectors
(Examiners) of the same batch (the applicant is of 1993 batch based on the date
of joining) on the basis of base cadre seniority of the tree categories
counting the combined length (length of service as Inspector/PO/Examiner as per
the seniority position in seniority list of the concerned
Commissionerate/Customs House + length of service as Superintendent/Appraiser
as per seniority position in the All India seniority list) of service.
11. That in the present
restructuring proposal handed over to the Service Associations under F. No.
8/B/12/HRD(HRM)/2010(Association) dated 11.10.2010, which is 3rd
successive restructuring where the IRS officers are the main beneficiaries and
again the same attitude of apathy and bias towards the Group B Central Excise
Executive officers is being shown. The proposal seeks to bring the IRS officers
at par with the other Group A Services of Central Government while totally
ignoring the justifiable claim of the Group B Central Excise officers for
bringing them at par within their counter-parts working in the same Department
i.e. Inspectors of Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate and even working under
same Board i.e. Central Board of Excise & Customs viz. the Examiners of
Customs. Even, in the previous cadre
restructuring, the IRS officers were given parity with their counter-parts
working under the Central Board of Direct Tax, and resultantly, officers
promoted to the rank of Joint Commissioner were given the scale of Additional
Commissioner within days of their promotion as Joint Commissioner. On the other hand, as pointed out by the
Finance Committee of the Parliament, the lower and middle cadres were made to
suffer. Astonishingly, as per the current cadre restructuring proposal, while
all the eligible IRS officers of the ranks of Joint Commissioner/Deputy
Commissioner/Assistant Commissioners as well as Appraisers and Examiners will
be promoted, the Superintendents of Central Excise and Inspectors of Central
Excise have been proposed to be left out from the bonanza reserved exclusively
for certain cadres only.
12. That the financial
implications of the cadre restructuring as proposed are misleading in so far as
the expenditure for filling up posts in the cadre of Superintendent of Central
Excise and proportional vacancies of Assistant Commissioners are
concerned. The Inspectors of Central
Excise and Superintendents of Central Excise, who are waiting promotions, have
already got financial benefits under the ACP/MACP Schemes and the projections
of expenditure have been mis-stated/unnecessarily clubbed with a mala-fide
intent to extend benefit to those
categories wherein there is no stagnation i.e. the Examiners and Appraisers of
Customs.
13. That the CBEC has failed to
rectify the anomalies in the promotional matters of the Group B Officer working
under it and has failed to implement the recommendations of various committees
like Bhardwaj Committee regarding the merger of analogous cadres and HPC and
recommendations of DOPM/HRD. The authorities have failed to execute the various
proposals regarding the parity in promotions of analogous cadres, merger of
analogous cadres, and organization of Group B organized services, which have
been recommended and initiated by the various committees/HRD of CBEC. The
intent of the authorities in this regard are arbitrary, mala fide and against
the law and justice.
14. That the CBEC/Govt.
authorities are apathetic, indifferent, non-serious and non-committal on the
matters relating to the removal of stagnation in the Group B Executive cadres
is clearly evident from the fact that nothing concrete appears to have been
done by the CBEC authorities to implement the in-situ promotion scheme, which
in principle approved by the Board itself in its meeting held under the
Chairmanship of the then Chairman Shri S. Dutt Majumdar, on 18.02.2011.
15. Even if the existing
structure is maintained intact for the moment, the CBEC as included the
categories of Appraisers and Examiners in the present restructuring proposal
despite the fact that the HPC has categorically observed in its report that
there is no stagnation in these cadres and hence, these cadres need not be
included in the restructuring scheme. It appears that the intention of the
authorities in doing so is to favour these particular officers, which is
illegal, unjustified, uncalled for, illogical and mala-fide.
16. That due to the wrong,
illegal, illegitimate, mala fide, unjust, unfair and attitude and policies of
the CBEC authorities and the failure of the DOPT to get the relevant
Recruitment Rules/OMS etc. corrected, the applicants have suffered loss in
terms of pay and promotions. In Chandigarh Zone, the members of the Association
belonging to General Category and Scheduled Caste categories have suffered a
lot as they are yet to get promotion after completion of 19 years of service.
On the other hand, the candidates belonging to S.T category have been promoted
after 8 years of service. Though the reservation policy cannot be faulted, but
due to the acute stagnation of 19 years against the qualifying service of 8
years for promotion, a very wrong, precarious and humiliating situation is
staring the applicants, who have to serve under their extreme juniors ( with
gap of around 11-12 years of service), which has a very demoralizing effect
upon the morale and adversely effects their efficiency and capability to
discharge their duties with full zeal.
17. That due to the wrong
policies followed by the CBEC/DOE/DOPT, the applicants have also suffered in
terms of pay. As per the MACP, group B officers of Department of Revenue are to
be placed in GP of 5400/- after completion of regular four years service in GP
of Rs. 4800/-. Now, the candidates belonging to ST category, who are much
junior to the candidates belonging to General and SC category, are promoted to
the post of Superintendent on completion of 8 years qualifying service and
placed in Grade Pay of Rs. 4800/-. Further they are placed in Grade Pay of
5400/- after completion of 4 years of service in Grade Pay of Rs. 4800/-. Thus,
the candidates, who are denied timely promotion due to the acute stagnation on
account of the wrong, illegal and mala fide policies followed by the CBEC/DOPT,
are also denied the Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- even after completion of 16 years
of service ( i.e. after completion of four years of regular service in the
Grade Pay of Rs., 4800/- under ACP Scheme) on the ground that they have not
been promoted to the post of Superintendent ( Group B ) post having GP of Rs.
4800/-. The Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- to
such candidates have been denied by the CBEC/Govt of India/DOPT/DOE etc.
despite numerous High Court/CAT decisions in favour of similarly placed candidates
of Inspectors/Superintendents of Central Excise cadres. On the other hand, the
injustice and denial of this Grade Pay of Rs. 5400/- to these candidates have
purported to be perpetuated by filing SLP by the CBEC before the Hon’ble
Supreme Court. This is against the tenets of Govt. being a model employer, as
the employees are being made to litigate on every aspect against their own
employer due to the wrong, illegal and mala fide policies of the govt.
authorities.
18. That even the reservation
in the matters of promotion has not benefited the ST candidates, who are
working in other Cadre Controlling Zones of CBEC. For example, in Rajasthan
Zone, the ST candidates of 1993 batch are still awaiting their first promotion
and their counter parts in Chandigarh Zone with 8 years qualifying service have
been promoted. This is against the principles of Equality, Liberty and Justice enshrined in our
Constitution. Even the ST candidates of Chandigarh Zone, or for that any other
Zone where they get faster promotion due to their numbers being less than their
quota, are likely to suffer as they are to be placed below their seniors in
base cadre of Inspectors in the seniority list of Superintendents according to the “rule of
catchment” enunciated by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. Thus, even in long
term, they are also likely to suffer on account of acute stagnation due to the
wrong, flawed, illegal, unfair and unjust policies followed by the CBEC/Govt.
of India/DOPT/DOE etc.
19. That the insensitive, mala
fide, indifferent, unjust and unfair attitude of the CBEC and other Govt.
authorities is well reflected from the fact that the CBEC has so far failed
even to acknowledge the receipt of the representations sent by some individual
members of the Association in 2010 and 2011. This has also deepened the belief
of the applicants that their career is going to suffer under the CBEC
dispensation, which appears to be only worried and alive towards the interests
of only select few cadres of Group A and Inspectors ( Examiner) cadres only.
20. That if the present
restructuring exercise is carried out without taking into consideration the
base cadre seniority/removal of inter-category and intra-cadre and
intra-departmental disparities and creation of Group B organized service as
suggested by the HPC, the career prospects of the applicant will be adversely
effected and jeopardized and irreparable loss will be caused to the applicant
in terms of promotion, pay, allowances, pensionery and other retirement
benefits etc., which is not permissible under the law.
21. The
applicant has reasonable and justifiable apprehension that the present Cadre
Restructuring proposal will be implemented without taking into consideration
the aforesaid facts and circumstances, which will cause irreparable loss to the
applicant in terms of pay, allowances, promotion & status, pensioner and
other retirement benefits, which is not permissible under the law. Hence, this representation.
22. That
the above-said omissions and commissions on the part of the CBEC and Govt. of
India authorities have resulted in gross miscarriage of justice, the
Recruitment Rules of Group B Officers of all the three cadres are liable to be
aligned providing equality of qualifying service and promotions, that the
fundamental rights of the applicants enshrined under Articles 14, 16 and 20
have been violated and the applicants have been made to work in extreme
dehumanizing and demoralizing environment, which admittedly effects the
administrative efficiency of the Department.
23. In view of the above submissions,
it is requested that: -
a.
The cadre restructuring may please be carried out
after taking into consideration the base cadre seniority and the applicant may
be brought at par with the Inspectors of CBEC viz. the Inspectors(Preventive
officers/Examiners) and this shall automatically rectify the anomalies on
account of regional disparities also and also remove the pay related anomalies
which are subject matter of litigation before the various Courts/CAT etc.
b.
Before implementation of the current CR proposal,
All India seniority list of Group B Officers may be be framed on the basis of date of joining and
the applicant may be placed above the
officers who joined as Inspectors of Central Excise and Customs ( Preventive
Officers /Examiners) after the applicant, by immediate promotion of the
applicant.
c.
That the scheme of in-situ promotions approved by
the Board in its meeting dated 18.02.2011 may please be implemented immediately
independently of the Cadre Review.
Yours faithfully,
FOR AICEIA, CHANDIGARH
CIRCLE
(BHAGWAN SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY
To
The Deputy Commissioner (
P&V),
Central Excise &
Service Tax Commissionerate,
Chandigarh-1
Sub: Meeting regarding existing
transfer guidelines related to different cadres - reg
Kindly refer to
your office letter dated 15.11.12 on the
above cited subject, whereby a meeting has been fixed with the Hon’ble
Commissioner, Chandigarh-1 regarding the discussions on the transfer policy
issues on 20.12.2012.
In this regard,
first of all, the association welcomes this step of the Administration in
calling us for the meeting and caring for the cadre welfare.
The following
points are proposed to be discussed with the administration in the meeting : -
1. In ICT, the Inspectors allocated to
Chandigarh-I on completion of tenure in J&K, should not be posted in Shimla
Division immediately as far as possible, as it leads to hardships for an
individual from J&K (hard station) to Shimla (again hard posting).
2. There are 9 Ranges and one Division is located
at Shimla. In the transfer policy in force, tenure at remote located Ranges
like Poanta Sahib, Bilaspur, Solan has been fixed for One year. It is requested
that 'Shimla' station comprises division office and 'Range Shimla' should also
be included in it for One year stay only. Further persons posted directly in
Baddi / Parwanoo Ranges should be replaced with the ones
posted in P.Sahib / Bilaspur / Solan / Shimla for second year. In other words,
the tenure of all the sensitive stations/postings in the Division may be fixed
as one year so as to ensure the rotation of the Inspectors at normal and hard
postings/stations in the Division.
3. The policy of two years stay in field and
one year on 'Table' must be followed strictly to ensure due justice to all.
1.
The
policy should clarified to treat the postings on refund/rebate seats, a sensitive/non
sensitive keeping in view the quantum of rebate as per the zonal transfer
policy.
2.
The
charges of public dealing relating to Refund/Rebate/Bonds/Registrations etc.
should not be allotted to the Inspectors due to non-sensitive postings and
deviations, if any, should be rare and with the prior approval of the
Commissioner.
3.
Any
other point that may be discussed with the permission of the Chairman of the
meeting.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(BHAGWAN SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY,
AICEIA, CHANDIGARH
CIRCLE
To
The Deputy Commissioner (
P&V),
Central Excise &
Service Tax Commissionerate,
Chandigarh-1
Sub: Meeting regarding existing
transfer guidelines related to different cadres - reg
Kindly refer to
your office letter dated 15.11.12, our letter dated 19.11.2012, and discussions
with you on 20.11.2012, on the above
cited subject.
Besides the
points proposed vide the association’s letter dated 19.11.2012, we wish to
include the following points also in the transfer policy relating to
Commissionerate, Chandigarh-I
:-
1. The postings in Service Tax
Range/formations of sensitive nature should be as per roaster system. The
officers who have never been posted in the service tax sensitive postings
should be first posted in Service tax sensitive postings.
2. That in order to maintain efficiency and
administrative convenience, the roaster should be prepared based upon mixture
of senior most and junior most officers.
3. That officers, who have served for more
than one year in sensitive posting of service tax may not be included in the
roaster until and unless list of those having no service tax sensitive postings
is exhausted.
4. That those who are holding service tax
sensitive postings as additional charge besides central excise sensitive
postings should be excluded from the list of officers having served in service
tax sensitive postings.
Further, as
regards the matters relating to ICT transfers, the association will not be able
to put forward its suggestions in such a short time. Therefore, it is requested
that at least a fortnight’s time may please be granted to enable the association
to elicit the views of its members upon Zonal transfer guidelines and submit
its proposals to the administration. Further, it is requested that the
proposals by the administration, if any, may be communicated to the association
as expeditiously as possible so that the same may be discussed with our members
before giving our view-point on these proposals.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
(BHAGWAN
SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY,
AICEIA, CHANDIGARH
CIRCLE
CIRCULAR
DATED 21.11.2012
A meeting of the Circle Executive
Committee of Association is going to be held at CFS GFRL, Sahnewal, Ludhiana, on 07.12.2012,
at 12.00 hours. The agenda points to be
discussed will be following : -
1. the
transfer policy guidelines proposed by the administration;
2. to
evaluate the working of the branch bodies and central body of the association
and to introspect into the working of the association;
3. to
discuss the matters relating to grade pay of Rs. 5400/- as per representation
given to the authorities;
4. to
disuss the further course of action regarding representation given about
removal of stagnation and injustice being done to the cadre of Central Excise
in the wake of the proposed cadre review under process;
5. to
review the matters relating to membership and DDO certificates;
6. to
discuss the points proposed to be put up in the Patna convention of the AICEIA.
The Vice Presidents of
all the Branches are requested to kindly call formal meetings of the members at
their respective Commissionerate headqauarters and elicit the views of the
members. They should also bring the relevant DDO Certificates relating to the
subscription deducted upto date with them in the meeting along- with cheques,
if any, delivered to them by the DDO authorities, and also bring with them the
list of subscribed and non-subscribed members so that the position may be clear
before the central body office bearers visit the Patna convention.
Shri Kulwinder Kumar and
Shri Vinod Kumar are requested to kindly finalise their recommendations in
respect of procedure regarding Cigarettes factories for being presented to the
All India body. Shri Sanjeev Sharma, Inspector, Ludhiana will be special invitee for the
meeting.
This issues with the prior approval of the
President.
(BHAGWAN SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY
Copy for kind information to : -
1.The President/Secretary General, All India
C.E. Inspectors’ Assocation;
2.The Chief Commissioner, Customs, C. Ex. And Service
Tax, Chandigarh Zone, Chandigarh
3. The Commissioner, Central Excise & Service
Tax/Customs Commissionerates, Chandigarh-1/Chandigarh-II/Ludhiana/Amritsar/J
& K.
4. The Working President/ASG/Vice Presidents/Joint
Secretaries/Executive Members/Advisors/Special Invitees of AICEIA, CHANDIGARH ZONE.
5 Notice Boards at all Commissionerates and BlogSpot.
(BHAGWAN SINGH)
GENERAL SECRETARY
