Call to join Inspectors in the fight of the 'Right against Might'.

Dear friends and comrades,

All of us are by now aware that two Inspectors of Lucknow Zone have been placed under suspension for unspecified reasons and have been shifted to places around 200 Kms away from their place of posting, by the Principal Commissioner of Agra, purportedly (as is said to have been stated by him) with the knowledge of the Principal Chief Commissioner, Lucknow.

From the Office Bearers of the unit and from the Secretary General of the AICEIA, we have been able to gather that the suspensions issued on 05.03.2019 is as a result of the resistance of members of the unit to wear uniform because no uniform has been prescribed in our department and also therefore not to participate in a (mock) guard of honour to a Member of the CBIC on his visit to that area.

It is also surprising that these Officers had been deputed to a 15 day training on 'Uniform protocols', at SSB, Ghorakpur, to be attended in uniform, when the uniform itself was in dispute.  Still surprising is that the said order to attend the said training was issued from a vigilance file which makes the entire purpose and action a suspect.

We are also aware of how the non-existent uniform has been misused by the DR IRS for their personal ego satisfaction. Our generation started questioning it. The Board had to concede before the CIC that there is no prescribed Uniform for our department. The CIC also in their order dated 2010 directed the CBEC to formulate guidelines if Uniform is to be maintained in the department. Down the line, with the introduction of GST, it has become out of question. A prescribed uniform is required at best only in Customs formations, for identification and safety and security of the personnel themselves. There too, it is not to be meant to impersonate the police by sitting in the front seat of the vehicles transporting IRS Officers and carrying weapons as if our IRS Officers are always under threat to their lives. The complex of our IRS Officers that they are neither IPS nor IAS is sought to be camouflaged by such mockery. 

On 06.03.2019, by calling in the Police into the Office to threaten and (reportedly) abuse our Officers who were waiting to get an assurance from their Principal CC that the suspensions would be revoked, the Principal Chief Commissioner and his office have unwittingly conceded that they do not consider our Officers on par with Police Officers and thus this pattern of uniform they have been forcing upon us is entirely and without any legal backing or sanction. 

In these circumstances, the Principal CC is said to have promised our Lucknow AICEIA Officer Bearers to get the suspensions revoked by Tuesday (12.03.2019). On the other hand it is learnt the Principal Commissioner who issued the suspensions had himself agreed to revoke them on Monday (11.03.2019). Both promises have not been kept yet. 

The Senior Officers involved in this episode should realize that these youngsters on whom they are illegally exercising their administrative powers are only of the age group of their own children. They should for a moment pause to think how they will feel if their own children are meted out with such ill-treatment and injustice. If they consider it for a moment, the department would be a better place to live and work in. If not, then serious action requires to be taken to save our young brethren. 

We have spent almost our entire life by carrying out the directions of these senior officers, writing their orders, enabling them to get pats on their backs from their higher ups, meeting out their revenue targets to enable them to get more and more promotions, even as we remained stuck where we are merely passing from a GP of 4600 to 5400 in our entire career.  Now we cannot allow ourselves to be spectators to the ruin of lives of the present generation of Inspectors also. 

Hence, when the Inspectors all over India are to hold a Lunch Hour demonstration tomorrow (13.03.2019) protesting against the illegal suspensions in Lucknow and demanding the immediate revocation of the suspensions, let us also join them to give them our complete moral support in this fight of ‘Right against might’.

Our letter to the Board on the subject issued today is given below: