ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
PRESS STATEMENT
MASS RESIGNATION BY GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS.
The All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers , the organization representing about 11,800 Gazetted Executive Officers of the Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax Department,
has embarked upon an agitation programme from 25/09/2012, demanding
immediate approval of Cadre Restructuring proposal of CBEC without any
cut as cleared by the D/O Expenditure, implementation of Apex Court
Order dated 03.08.11 retrospectively as per judgement, granting of
GP-5400 in PB-3 to the grade of Superintendent of Central Excise w.e.f
01.01.2006 , introduction of in situ scheme to remove stagnation etc..
The department is already facing acute shortage of manpower both at the
staff and officers level, especially at the cutting edge level i.e.
Assistant Commissioners who are playing a very crucial role in revenue collection.
Near about 8000 nos. of Superintendents have
completed 30 year of services as Inspectors and Superintendents
combinedly at present and waiting for their promotion to Gr-A. The
Inspectors who are joining in the department as direct recruit are
retiring by getting one promotion to the grade of Superintendent in
their service career. Whereas those similar placed employees who are
joining in Income Tax department or in CSS or as Examiner in Customs are
getting almost 5 to 6 promotions in their service career, While 1992
batch Examiners are being promoted to the grade of Asst. Commissioner,
the 1975 batch Inspectors are still Superintendents and are being forced
to work under the 1992 batch of Examiners who are quite juniors to
them in service. The parity is the basic concept of our Constitution,
parity in promotion is required to be maintained amongst the similar
placed employees of same department, but till date the Govt. of India
have not initiated any action to maintain parity in promotion amongst
the Examiners/Preventive Officers and Inspectors of CBEC. The
educational qualification, mode of recruitment and Grade Pay for these
post are similar. The Examiner, Preventive Officers and Inspectors are
being recruited by the same examination conducted by Staff Selection
Commission. The Honourable Apex Court have decided that one should at
least get 3 promotions in his service career. But Govt have not allowed
two promotions to the cadre of Inspector of CBEC. Recently the
Honourable Apex Court have decided for revision of recruitment Rules and
making regularization of pending adhoc promotions since 97 on the basis
of such new recruitment rules, but Govt. of India made contempt of
the said order dated 03.08.11 by not regularizing the pending adhoc
promotions on the basis of said new amended /revised recruitment rules
retrospectively. Whereas in past in a similar occasion Govt made adhoc
regularization with retrospective effect to allow benefits to the
officers of the Customs wing. Major revenue of Govt. of India are being
collected through CBEC. Inspectors and Superintendents are basically
responsible for collection of such major revenue. But these officers are
not being awarded at least two promotions in their service career and
are not being granted with appropriate pay as has been granted to
similar placed employees of Central Govt.
Considering the utter frustration of
Superintendents who are languishing without any promotion for around
18/20 years and being forced to work under their natural juniors by 17
years, AIACEGEO had served a notice dated 31.12.12, on the Finance
Minister of India informing about the proposed agitation starting from
24.02.13, if all the 10 points charter of demands are not accepted by
31.01.13 . The Member(P&V) has called us on 31.01.13 for discussions
and requested to allow further time but we refused to allow any more
time as in every months around 100 nos. of our members are retiring
without getting any promotion to Gr-A. As the CBEC has failed to meet
the deadline, AIACEGEO is constrained to adopt the following mode of
agitation :
a. Boycott Excise Day on 24.02.13.
b. No extra work for Budget or collection of revenue to achieve target if any.
c. Only time-barring assessment work to be undertaken.
d. Wearing of Black-badge from 24.02.13 to 01.03.13 & lunch hours demonstration with slogans on 01.03-2013
e. Non- attending of official duty beyond official hours and holidays( in cluding Saturday and Sunday) etc.
f. Mass resignations on 30.04.13.
The Gazetted Executive Officers posted in entire 124 Commissionerates have confirmed their participation in the strike action. The
strike is organized by the All India Central Excise Gazetted Executive
Officers, New Delhi on the basis of the strike notice served on
31.12.2012 to Finance Minister of India for a settlement of the 10 Point charter of demands..
The Gazetted Executive Officers of throughout the country are mainly agitated over the delay in approval of Cadre Restructuring proposals of Central Board of Excise and Customs and cleared by the Department of Expenditure since long by the Department of Personnel & Training which is headed by the Prime Minister of India
It is required to approve Cadre Restructuring in every 5 years but only 2 cadre restructurings were approved during 1991 and 2001 by Central Government for this old Department . There are near about 12000 Gazetted Executive Officers working in Central Excise, Service Tax and Customs Department but all most all of these Gazetted Executive Officers are retiring without getting promotion to Gr-A posts. The reason of such acute stagnation is mainly attributed for non conducting of Cadre Restructuring within the time frame prescribed by Central Government. The Gazetted Executive Officers known as Superintendent of Central Excise are retiring after getting only one promotion in their service career on account of decades long acute stagnation. They are deprived of the appropriate pay scale/pay band & grade pay. They are facing the worst career prospects and working conditions. The employee grievance redressal mechanism has totally failed as the administration has no interest to redress the staff grievances. The Gazetted Excutive Officers of Central Excise are forced to work under the extreme juniors of Customs belonging to the same cadre. The cadre restructuring is pending with the government for last 6 years. The concerned authorities are taking nothing seriously in relation of any of the issues. In view the above, the Association is forced to decide to revive the agitational programme . Accordingly, the notice is being served upon by the Association on 31.12.2012 intimating that all its members would observe protest week from 24.02.13 to 01.03.13 by wearing black badges, having peaceful demonstration in lunch hours on 01.03.13 and totally boycotting the Excise Day function on 24.02.13 throughout the country. As a next step, all its members also may submit mass resignations on 30.04.13 in protest. The 10 points charter of demands as submitted by the Association on 29.10.12 along with other points were discussed in the meeting held on 02.11.2012 under the Chairpersonship of Member(P&V), Central Board of Excise and Customs and the Member(P&V) was pleased to assure the Office Bearers to settle all the grievances within three months. The Member (P&V) was also further pleased to appeal the Association to defer its agitational programme for 3 months. Accordingly ADG (HRM) of HRD, CBEC issued one letter duly approved by Member (P&V) to the Association asking to defer the agitational programme. Therefore, the programme was deferred for the time being as per the request of Member (P&V). Despite the assurance to settle grievances of Association in the time bound manner, not a single point has yet been settled by Board. Therefore it has been unanimously decided in the Associate Committee meeting of the Association to revive the programme during the month of February, 2013,
Charter of demands
1. Immediate implementation of the cadre restructuring without any cut as already approved by the Expenditure. All proposed
posts to be approved permanently and be filled-up by promotions only
alongwith all posts likely to be vacant within 5 years of
implementation of cadre restructuring without any direct recruitment in
group ‘A’ during the period.
2. Parity
with other counterparts of CSS, CBDT etc. either in the cadre
restructuring or independent of it to retire our officers also in PB-4.
3. Immediate fulfilment of the commitments like
‘all the vacancies of cadre restructuring to be filled up by promotions
& extend this benefit for more than 1 years’, ‘creation of separate
service for group ‘B’ executive officers’, ‘promotion of group ‘B’
gazetted executive officer directly to STS like CSS’, ‘minimum
qualifying service for promotion to gazetted post should be uniform for
Inspector, PO & Examiner’, ‘all Inspectors, PO’s & Examiners of
same year should be brought to same level of promotion’ etc. etc. made
during the presentation on cadre restructuring proposal on 18.01.11 in
consonance of the submissions made by the Association vide its Ref. No. 13/11 Dt. 27.01.11.
4. At least four functional promotions in the service career.
5. Immediate
implementation of the Supreme Court verdict dt. 03.08.11/30.03.12 by
framing “just, fair & equitable” recruitment rules and abiding all
the ad hoc promotions with the same duly granting notional promotions to the seniors of Central Excise whose juniors of Customs have already been promoted.
6. Initial
grade pay of Rs. 5,400/- in PB3 to the Superintendents of Central
Excise w.e.f. the date of the grant of this grade pay/equivalent pay
scale to the other analogous counterparts of IB, CBI etc.
7. Time-scale in PB3 instead of PB2 to the
Superintendents completing 4 years of service and promotions to all
Superintendents directly to the post of Deputy Commissioner (STS
post) to maintain parity between the officers of headquarters
organisations & field offices. Also counting of regular service in non-discriminatory manner as compared to CSS etc.
8. At
least a grade pay of Rs. 6,600-/ & 7,600/- on IInd & IIIrd MACP
upgradation without offsetting with time scale on the lines of MACPS
adopted by the State Governments like Uttar Pradesh etc. or even on
better lines on account of the originating source (i.e., 6th CPC) being the same.
9. Finalisation of in-situ promotion scheme under consultation of the Association.
10. Holding of regular minuted meetings under employee grievances redressal mechanism.
LOKANATH MISHRA.
PRESIDENT
