UNIFICATION MOVE AND ACTION AHEAD

Dear friends and comrades,

Very many Units have been asking me about what is the progress in respect of the attempts of unification of AIACEGEO.

I have been awaiting some positive feedback from the other side.  Till this moment none has come.

Com. Pranave Shekar, GS, Delhi Unit and Coms. Sanjay Mishra and Sailendra Kumar, GS and President of Patna unit, along with a few others of Patna had met me and some other office bearers of our Association on 6.8.18, at Patna, on the sidelines of the formation of our Federation.

Even though our Convention was due only after May 2019 and before August 2019 Our side was prepared to go in for an immediate Convention, if that would enable such unification.

I also agreed that I will nominate one General Secretary of a Unit on my side to issue the notice for such a Convention on the same date and venue as would be decided to enable a combined Convention, under the following terms agreed by the other team also:

i)             Mr. Ravi Malik also would issue an authorization to one of the General Secretaries on his side, who has been elected and is within the tenure period and is a Superintendent, to issue the notice for the above said Convention;

ii)           Only Superintendents would attend the Convention;

iii)          Voting rights would be based only on the strength of the DDO Certificates for the year 2017-18;

iv)          It would be based on one vote per delegate for each post subject to one delegate for every100 member and one more if the balance is more than 50;

v)            Unit Office bearers should have been elected in their units within the term of 2 years and 3 months on the date of the Convention.

We also impressed upon them that Mr. Ravi Malik does not have even 15% DDO Certificates and cannot qualify even for a second Association.  While we have submitted evidence of a strength of 5317 members by way of DDO Certificates for the year 2017-18, he has produced on 1350 for the same period.  However we said that we were prepared to hold an early Convention so that the main units from which he has shown his strength namely AP & Telengana, Patna, Ahmedabad and Kutch Kandla could formally join us and also the process would activate those of the other units particularly in UP where they have to be revived with DDO subscriptions and elections. 

We also informed them that unless this joint Convention is held before the end of November 2018, from when on we will have to concentrate on the CR 2018 draft to be placed by the DGHRD, the cadre would not stand to gain.  They also agreed that it should be so and at any rate the Convention should not be delayed beyond December 2018.

They had left after assuring us that they will get back to us on the next day after consultations within the team selected at Lucknow meeting for undertaking this unification.

But till now they have not got back to us officially.  It appears by the recent moves made by Mr. Ravi Malik that he is not prepared to leave before May 2019.

We are all aware how much care has been taken by the CBIC to enable Mr. Ravi Malik continue as Secretary General of AIACEGEO.  The following are on record:

Ø  Even when he did not submit DDO Certificates for renewal of recognition from 2015, as required by the Board itself, they continued to entertain and engage with him, without any questions;

Ø  Even after he was promoted as AC, they continued to entertain and engage with him, even though the Constitution of AIACEGEO did not permit it and no amendments had been approved by the GOI as per the CCS (RSA) Rules;

Ø  Even after we submitted DDO Certificates proving support of more than 35% of the members of the cadre on 17.01.2018, still they continued to entertain and engage with him;

Ø  Within days of our submission of the DDO Certificates, he got information from the Board office and he frantically sent message to his left out units to send DDO certificates, urgently;

Ø  Even when he had not been able to prove his credentials and submit the required number of DDO certificates, the then Member (Admn), the present Chairman, attended a meeting convened by him at Hyderabad and showered encomiums on his leadership;

Ø  The then Chairman sent him a message to reassure the cadre, though it was pretty clear that the cadre  was no longer with him;

Ø  Even when he was not muster the necessary DDO certificates after the said meeting, the Board permitted him to submit more than 5000 DDOs for the period from 2011-12 onwards, without any break up or working sheet even to verify the veracity of the numbers;

Ø  Taking this on record, the Board constituted a three member committee, the terms of reference which is not yet declared openly;

Ø  We thought that the three member committee will go into the details of legitimacy of the two rival claims and give their report;

Ø  But the other group says that the committee was only for brokering peace between the two ‘factions’ and unless they are united the Board will not grant recognition;

Ø  During the hearing by the three member committee, we were assured that they will recommend issuance of a one line letter stating that the Constitution of AIACEGEO does not permit a person promoted as AC to continue as member/Office Bearer and that no amendment to the contrary has been approved by the GOI;

Ø  But no such letter was issued and instead there was a new story doing the rounds that Mr. Ravi Malik had submitted the said amendment permitting ACs to continue as members, somewhere in August 2016.  No one thought it fit to question how he would thereafter seek approval for such an amendment in the meeting he held at Gandhidham in May 2017. Even then the approval of GOI was lacking;

Ø  The other group was again permitted to hold a meeting at Lucknow;

Ø  When even there they were not able to prove their strength, they accepted to constitute a committee for so called peace talks, to satisfy the Board that they were ‘trying’ for unity;

Ø  And the Board has been sitting on the issue, as if they have been bothered about our unity;

Ø  As if no other cadre in this department has two associations recognized;

Ø  And as if they do not know the real strength of both sides.

It is clear as sunlight what the administration desires. 

We are also sure that those units which support such dirty tricks also acknowledge the age old practice of any administration to have a leadership of their choice to deal with or if not possible, to divide and deal with the convenient faction.  Thus, if achievement of unity is the purpose, these few units who are still with the former Secretary General have the key in their hands.

In the meanwhile, we have to prepare the ground to launch a battery of action programmes, at various levels to face the cadre unfriendly approaches of the Board.  They do not want to give appointments to the Associations.  They take adverse decisions even in matters of pay, on which they are not competent.  They have not bothered to implement the Stagnation Committee recommendations.  They have changed tracks on the implementation of Parmar decision, quite often.  They have not regularized the vacancies in the cadre of Assistant Commissioners and have not enabled upward mobility for the promotee IRS officers. The feed back received so far from field formations visited by DGHRD Officials in connection with the CR 2018 is quite disappointing.  Very many other decisions pertaining to the cadre are idling in files of the Board.

We have to start sensitizing our members about the near paralysis in decision making that has crept into the CBIC.  The National Federation comprising of three of the Inspector born cadre Associations, the COC of Associations in the CBIC and the CCGGOO are the platforms from where we will have to operate.  Every issues has to be tackled at different levels and in different methods. 

Therefore, at the field levels, all Office Bearers are required to contact their counterparts in all the above three platforms and start having regular interaction with them so that any programme undertaken as per the call of the above said organizations are carried out in an uniform manner and with full force.

Hence the following work is immediately before us:

(i)           Forming and rejuvenating the COC at the Commissionerate/Unit   levels

(ii)            Forming Units of the National Federation in regions and

(iii)        Contacting representatives of ITGO, IA&AD, CPWD, etc wherever available and try to form State level CCGGOO units.

Being in contact with the other sister organizations within the CBIC, within the Revenue and within the Central Government will enable us to take up things with the Ministry directly and with more back ground material.

Let us depend upon our own organizational strength to achieve what is just and due for us, without expecting the administration to see reason on their own.

With fraternal greetings,

R. Manimohan,

SG, AIACEGEO.