" IRS OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM THE GRADE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL EXCISE ARE ALSO MEMBERS OF AIACEGEO. THIS IS THE ONLY ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERINTENDENTS OF CENTRAL EXCISE AND IRS OFFICERS PROMOTED FROM THE GRADE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL EXCISE THROUGH OUT THE COUNTRY . President Mr.T.Dass and SG Mr. Harpal Singh.

Sunday, 2 August 2015

DRAFT

MINUTES OF THE SECOND CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (CEC) MEETING OF THE IRS(INDIRECT TAXES) OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION [PREVIOUSLY “INDIAN REVENUE SERVICE (CENTRAL EXCISE AND CUSTOMS) PROMOTEE OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION”] HELD AT NACEN, KOLKATA ON 27.06.2015

1.        The meeting started with the welcome address by Smt. Smita Guha on behalf of the organiser at Kolkata. The House nominated Shri. Anindya Roy of Kolkata to preside over the meeting for the intervening period, as the President of the Association, Sri A K Sharma, was late in reaching the meeting because of pre-occupation.
2.        The main proceedings started with the address by the Secretary General, Sri Lokanath Mishra. He apprised the House about the problems faced by the cadre and elaborated on the actions undertaken by the current ad-hoc Body, as reflected in the ‘Action Taken Note’ (the full text of the ‘Action Taken Note’ can be viewed in the Association’s site CENGOA.BLOGSPOT.IN), presented before the House for such meeting. He reiterated the issues raised before the 7th CPC and the demands like direct promotion of the Gr. B Gazetted officers to the senior Gr. A posts (STS) like many other counterparts and non-functional financial upgradation of the Gr. A   promotee officers at par with their counterparts of CSS on batch to batch basis. 
3.        The Secretary General then read out the minutes of the first CEC meeting held at Mumbai for confirmation and the House voiced its approval.
4. At this juncture Shri. A.K.Sharma, President had arrived and took up the conduct of proceedings. In his Presidential Address he insisted the need for the Association to be united. He said that the promotions from Superintendent Cadre to the Assistant Commissioner be given at the STS level with the designation of Deputy Commissioner. He also lamented about lack of infrastructure for the Assistant Commissioners. Further he went on to record his strong objections against Felicitation Ceremony for the IRS Officers, purportedly responsible for making delay in Cadre Review implementation, organised by Mumbai and Pune Units, on 26-06-2015, in Mumbai. Participation of Shri.S.K.Patil, in his capacity of Organising Secretary of IRS Promotee Officers’ Association was held to be inappropriate and highly objectionable. He observed that the Board was consistently responsible for the delay of CR yet honouring the IRS officers in Board to the exclusion of several office bearers of the Superintendents Association sent a wrong signal to all those who tirelessly struggled to make the CR a reality. He concluded by urging all the units to unite without any self-serving motives and fight for the common cause of all officers. He has also stated that because of late submissions of APRs and Vigilance clearances by CCA, Mumbai, the DPC was delayed; hence there was not at all any justification to felicitate the officials of Mumbai Zone.

5.            Following the President’s address a proposal was mooted from the House to treat the instant meeting as General Body meeting to facilitate taking all decisions on important issues including adoption of Constitution, formation of a permanent body of the Association etc.. It was reasoned in favour of the proposal that statistically this meeting was being represented by the majority members of promotee Group-A officers of the Country as most of the numerically major Zones of the country figured in the total of 11 Zones present in the meeting. In course of discussions, it also revealed that the amongst the 11 attending Zones, Zonal formations had been constituted democratically in Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Shillong, & Kochi . It was argued, accordingly, that representations of the meeting had all the ingredients of a General Body meeting and all the decisions could be taken in the meeting amongst the Zones present without waiting for the Zones who had not sent their representatives and/or where Zonal Committees had not been democratically constituted despite repeated appeals were made to such Zones in this regard on behalf of the organisation. The President  Sri A K Sharma, , participated in the discussion and opposed the proposal of converting the instant meeting to a General Body meeting  and insisted on formation of permanent body of the Association  and adoption of Constitution only in a General Body meeting represented by majority of the Zones elected/selected in a democratic manner. The President has stated that the notification for conducting of Central Executive Committee  Meeting along with agenda points was issued by Secretary General after prior circulation amongst all members of AIB, hence demand for converting Executive Committee Meeting in to General Body Meeting  made by  Organising Secretary and other executive members who are part and partial of AIB is not appropriate and correct.   The Secretary General, Sri Lokanath Mishra requested the House to refrain from declaring the meeting to a General Body one in view of the fact that the same would run contrary to the Notice given for such meeting where it had been declared it as a Central Executive Committee Meeting. Shri.Mishra, has stated that adhoc committee has been constituted for a stop gap arrangement. This is a meeting of such adhoc committee. Till date units have not yet been notified and affiliation certificates have not been issued, hence at present no unit is affiliated to AIB and at more than 75% places no meeting and election has been conducted, only 2 or 3 General Secretaries are present in this meeting hence this meeting cannot be converted to a General Body meeting at any circumstances. This being an Executive Committee Meeting of adhoc committee ,the adoption of Constitution and conducting election cannot be take up in this meeting. He, however, said that only discussions can be made about the provisions of the constitution to present in the General Body Meeting to adopt the same. He finally stated that if this meeting would be converted to General Body then his objection should  be recorded.   He, however, was of the opinion that barring the formation of a permanent body of the Association and adoption of Constitution, all other issues could be discussed and decision taken in the meeting. He pointed out that this would give another chance to the all the Zones to select/elect their new body democratically to strengthen the Association. The House, accordingly, deliberated on the issue again and unanimous decisions have been taken to the following effect:
  • A General Body meeting of the Association will take place within the month of September 2015 at the venue to be decided in due course.
  • The General Body meeting will be represented by democratically elected/selected representatives of all the Zones of the Association all over India in the manner to be notified by the All India Body for such purpose.
  • The Zonal Committees shall be constituted democratically within the specific time frame as notified in this regard by the All India Body.
  • A permanent body of the Association shall be formed and a constitution shall be adopted in the General Body meeting.
  • Apart from the formation of the permanent body and adoption of the constitution, discussions will be made and decision taken on all other issues raised in the meeting including different aspects of the draft Constitution, as placed in the meeting by Shri B.A.Chakravarthi as the head of the Constitution Drafting Committee, name and status of the Association, amendments of the draft Gr-A Recruitment Rules floated by CBEC etc.
  1. The Secretary General informed the House that the President Sri A K Sharma had already proposed to hold the General Body meeting at Ludhiana.
  2. In accordance with the decision taken, the House then deliberated upon various issues, the first of which was the status and name of the Association. The representating Zones in overwhelming majority opined in favour of a separate independent service Association for all promotee IRS officers in the CBEC within the framework of the Central Civil Services (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1993. It was argued that independent Association was the only way to bring all the promotee officers borne in the cadre of Central Excise and Customs together under one umbrella organisation and being a part of a particular Association, for example, All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers (AIACEGEO) would only allow Group-A officers promoted from a particular formation like Central Excise to be members of that Association leaving aside the officers from Customs side. It was also pointed out that only separate Association could effectively safeguard the interest of the promotee officers in the matter of infrastructure, harassment, Recruitment Rules etc.. Sri Ravi Malik, Secretary General of the AIACEGEO opposed the proposal of a seperate Association on the ground that it would affect the desired unity amongst the different cadres. In response, it was pointed out that such an independent Association could work in tandem with other Associations and there could always have unity and joint movements on issues akin to each other. Moreover, as also argued, such independent Association was also not without precedence as Superintendents of Central Excise promoted from the cadre of Inspectors of Central Excise were already having a different Association in form of AIACEGEO. Finally, it has been decided that a seperate independent Association of all Group-A promotee officers in the CBEC shall come into existence with immediate effect with an independent Constitution to be adopted in the ensuing General Body meeting, as decided earlier. Till the formation of a new Committee in the said General Body meeting, the present body will continue to function.
  3. It has also been decided that the Association shall be a service Association within the framework of the Central Civil Services (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1993. However, a separate forum will be created under the premises of the Association to serve the interest of the officers who have retired from Gr-A service in CBEC.
  4. As far as the name of the Independent Association is concerned, majority of the representatives suggested for a change of the existing name particularly with reference to the word ‘promotee’. Accordingly, on the basis of different proposals, it has been finally decided that the name of the separate independent service Association shall be ‘INDIAN REVENUE SERVICE (INDIRECT TAXES) OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION’.
  5. With a view to achieving the recognition in terms of Central Civil Services (Recognition of Service Associations) Rules, 1993, which entails verification of membership by the check-off-System in pay-roll in different Zones, it has been decided that  necessary measures shall be initiated by the All India Body in that direction. It was, however, pointed out in the meeting that  such measure can be initited only on formation of Zonal Bodies democratically in the manner as notified by the All India Body in this regard.
  6. The House also discussed different provisions of the Draft Constitution placed by Shri B.A.Chakravarthi, Chairman, Drafting Committee.  Decisions were taken in respect of status, name of the Associations as pointed out earlier. It has further been decided to invite suggestions on the proposed draft from the office bearers as well as different Zones for the purpose of preparation of a revised and final draft to be placed and adopted in the ensuing General Body meeting.
  7. The House also deliberated upon the amendments to the draft Gr-A Recruitment Rules [IRS(C&CE) Gr-A Rules 2012] floated by the CBEC. The Secretary General informed about the series of shortcomings and discrimination in the proposed draft Recruitment Rules (RR) including that of creation of arbitrary grade IX and temporary posts for the promotee officers. He reminded that the issues were also discussed in the first CEC meeting at Mumbai and accordingly, Shri Anindya Roy and Shri S K Patil were requested to prepare a draft-reply on the proposed amendments to the RR for submission to the Board which they finalised in due course. Meanwhile, a proposal was mooted by this Association to try and submit a joint proposal for amendments alongwith two other Associations namely, AIACEGEO and All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association (AICEIA). A joint meeting was held at Chennai on 31.01.2015 attended by the President and Secretaries of AIACEGEO and AICEIA and authorised representative (Sri A S Roy) of this Association to evolve a joint draft amendment. The joint draft, however, could not be submitted for want of consensus. It has been decided by the House that in absence of consensus, the draft proposal for amendment shall be submitted to the Board without any further delay keeping in mind the extreme importance of the matter. It has further been decided to intensely pursue the issue and even explore the necessity of judicial redress, if necessary.
  8. President of the Association Sri A K Sharma, President of AIACEGEO Sri Chandramouli and Secretary General of AIACEGEO Sri Ravi Malik addressed the meeting, among others, and emphasised the need for unity amongst the Associations, improving the infrastructure etc.. Shri Ravi Malik said although the Assistant Commissioners are free to organise themselves under a separate association, he felt that they should work unitedly with Superintendents to accomplish common goals. He said that the Superintendents Association represented before the 7th CPC to grant Senior Time Scale to the promotee Assistant Commissioners. He felt the need for participation of more units to convert this meeting as General Body Meeting. He said that he had taken up the issue of proposed displacement of the newly promoted Assistant Commissioners out their present Zones with Board. He also praised eminent contribution of Shri.A.K.Sharma and Shri.Lokanath Mishra to the Association’s activities.  Shri.R.Chandramouli, praised the efforts of the Kolkata unit in organising the meeting. He hoped that this meeting will bring out some purposeful deliberations and reaffirmed the support of the Superintendents’ Association.

  1. The issue of granting the benefit of 3rd financial upgradation in the MACP scheme in the Grade Pay of 6600/- to the similarly placed officers all over the country, as a consequence of the of Hon’ble Madras High Court Order dt. 08.12.2014 in Writ Petition no. 19024 of 2014 & M.P. no. 1 of 2014 filed by Sri R Chandrasekharan, was discussed. It has been decided to issue an immediate letter to the concerned authority to that effect.
  2. The House discussed the broad contours of the convergent issues common for all cadres under CBEC in order to initiate them in the Joint Forum Meeting of all the Associations proposed to be held on 28th June 2015 at Kolkata under the aegis of Indian Revenue Service [Indirect Taxes] Officers’ Association.
  3. Finally, with Smt. Smita Guha proposing a vote of thanks, the meeting was declared as concluded.

  1. A)The following Office bearers and outstation delegates(Assistant Commissioners) attended the meeting:

S.No.
   Name of the Delegate- S/Shri

 Name of the Representing Zone
1.
A.K.Sharma
Chandigarh
2.
Lokanath Mishra  
Bhubaneswar
3.
A.S.Roy
Kolkota
4.
Sunil K. Patil
Pune
5.
P K Savant
Pune
6.
B.A.Chakravarthi
Chennai
7.
G.R.Nanjundaswamy
Benguluru
8.
N.Bharagavarama
Benguluru
9.
N.C.Pandey
Lucknow
10.
Varsha Kolhatkar
Mumbai
11.
V.U. Brahmakshatri
Mumbai
12.
V.P.Singh
Ranchi
13.
K.P.Pramod
Cochin
14.
Subhrangshu Deb
Shillong
15.
Sudip Kumar Dutta
Shillong
16.
R.Chandramouli
President, AIACEGEO
17.
Ravi Malik
Secretary  General, AIACEGEO
18.
C.S.Sarma
AIACEGEO

B) The following Assistant Commissioners also attended the meeting on behalf of the Kolkata local Committee :
1.       Shri Debashis Gupta
2.       Shri Ramesh Shibram
3.       Smt Smita Guha
4.       Sri Goutam Bandyopadhaya
5.       Shri J K Singh
6.       Shri Ajay Gopal Sarkar
7.       Shri Subrata De
8.       Sri Sunil Kumar Jha
9.       Shri Nilesh Baishya
10.   Shri Soureendra Bhattacharyya
11.   Shri Utpal Kar
12.   Shri P T Bhutia
13.   Shri Koushik Das
14.   Shri Subrata Mukherjee
15.   Shri V K Pandey
16.   Shri Anjan Ghosh
17.   Shri S Srivastava
18.   Shri Kamal Kanti Dam
19.   Shri Ashis Sarkar
20.   Shri Ved Prakash Shah
21.   Shri Anjansree Sarkar

Lokanath Mishra

Secretary General.