Details of support

Dear friends and comrades,

The Board has started its exercise to ascertain the actual support enjoyed by our AIB and that of the former SG.  For an investigation organisation, it should not have been so difficult to find.  But, going by the RSA Rules, they have decided to conduct a PH, before a committee constituted for this purpose, to enable both sides to put forth their arguments.  Accordingly, we have been invited on 27.7.18.  The former SG is to be heard on 17.7.18.

In this context some of the members from those units which are yet to take a decision or where office bearers are not active/available, have been contacting me and some of our office bearers regarding the actual support enjoyed by us.  Since for the ordinary members, the names of the units and regions represented by them may not be easy to understand, a map is given above.

The map depicts our support base.  The States which are marked with blue are entirely with our AIB. They are as below.  The names of the States/UT and the units in each are also indicated.

State	Name of Unit(s)
J&K	Chandigarh
HP
Punjab
Chandigarh UT
Rajasthan	Jaipur
Gujarat	Surat-Daman
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal
	Jabalpur
	Malwa
Chattisgarh	Chattisgarh
Maharashtra	Aurangabad
	Mumbai
	Nashik
	Pune
	Vidharbha
Goa	Goa
Karnataka	Karnataka
Kerala	Kerala
Tamil Nadu	Chennai
	Coimbatore
	Madurai
	Salem
	Tirunelveli
	Trichirapally
Odisha	Bhubaneswar
West Bengal	Kolkata
Sikkim
Andaman Nicobar

Apart from the above units, the Lucknow Customs Preventive Unit which encompasses the entire UP, Bhiar and Jharkhand has also declared their support to our AIB.  (THUS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF UNITS SUPPORTING THIS AIB IS 24) Some functional units in UP and the only unit of Bihar & Jharkand are supporting the former SG. These regions are marked with blue dots in the above map.

Delhi Unit have given a letter to the Board stating that they are supporting neither side as of now and only after their GB a decision will be taken. The region is indicated with black stripes.

A similar stand has been orally communicated to us by the Shillong unit which encompasses the North Eastern States and hence is indicated with black dots.

Within Gujarat, Surat and Daman have declared their support to us. Rajkot is the only other functional unit  in Gujarat which is yet to decide.  Similarly the Units in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana are also yet to decide.  These regions which are yet to decide are shown in white.

From the above depiction, it will be clear that the majority of the cadre has already taken a clear stand.

We hope that without waiting for the Board to decide on the issue, the rest of the cadre will see reason to be with the majority.  Instead of taking a decision for oneself, waiting for some one else to decide for us would be a bane for the future of the cadre. It is an insult heaped on ourselves.

Keeping on talking of unity - that the leaders should come together, that the Board should identify the correct person to represent the cadre, that all units should be brought under one umbrella, etc would only exhibit our lack of knowledge that the cause of division itself is fundamental - whether the cadre has to be represented by one belonging to the cadre or not, whether that one should represent the cadre in its entirety or only oneself or a selected few and whether all of us are prepared to abide by a majority decision or not. 

Members of the undecided units may take these into consideration and form their considered opinions.  If they can do so before 27.7.18 it will be great for all of us.

-R. Manimohan,

SG, AIACEGEO

Lessons from the Thailand rescue operations

The whole world prayed for a football team - to be rescued from a cave, they had been struck up due to heavy rains.  12 young boys and their coach had vanished into the caves and for 10 days no one knew where they were or even whether they were alive.  On the 10 th day, even as most of us had resigned to fate and thought that the rescue operations fighting against all odds, including torrential rains were going to be given up, a flicker of hope came.  The team was found alive deep inside a cave.  But rescue teams that had arrived in Thailand from all over the World did not know how to reach to them and how to rescue them.  To have known that they were alive and still not knowing how to rescue them was more painful. The pouring rains brought in deluge after deluge more than what could be drained out by motors.  Then sustained effort and a massive fight brought all the 13 of them safely, out of the caves.

In this gallant act, one rescuer of Thailand had laid his life.

There are important lessons for all of us in this event:

1) Sustained struggle yields. Not empty talk or so called 'lobying'.

2) The action plan has to be scientific and organized. Not jumlas and jumlas alone.

3) Those who are caught, even in the darkest cave can look forward to be rescued, if only they have the will to survive, have courage to face the ordeal, have a proper leader and his advice is followed.

4) A leadership that seeks to lead, also should be a leadership that would be ready to sacrifice.  Imagine what would have been the plight of those children if the coach had been an IRS or an IAS Officer.  He would have tried to come out first, claiming that only then the rest of relief work can happen.  He would have eaten up the food of the others also stating that the survival of a coach is more important for the game than that of a member of the team.  He would not have apologized for having endangered the team by taking them into the cave and rather would have blamed the boys themselves, or the system or technology or lack of it. And upon being rescued, he would have given a press statement that it was all his design to make them more strong or test their strength.

Swami Vivekananda laid down three steps for success, in his famous speech 'My Plan of Campaign', at Madras.  They are vital for any organization. To quote:

"Three things are necessary for great achievements. First, feel from the heart. What is in the intellect or reason? It goes a few steps and there it stops. But through the heart comes inspiration. ..... Do you feel? Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step .........

You may feel, then; but instead of spending your energies in frothy talk, have you found any way out, any practical solution, some help instead of condemnation, some sweet words to soothe their miseries, to bring them out of this living death?

Yet that is not all. Have you got the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions? If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right? If your wives and children are against you, if all your money goes, your name dies, your wealth vanishes, would you still stick to it? Would you still pursue it and go on steadily towards your own goal? As the great King Bhartrihari says, "Let the sages blame or let them praise; let the goddess of fortune come or let her go wherever she likes; let death come today, or let it come in hundreds of years; he indeed is the steady man who does not move one inch from the way of truth." Have you got that steadfastness? If you have these three things, each one of you will work miracles. You need not write in the newspapers, you need not go about lecturing; your very face will shine. If you live in a cave, your thoughts will permeate even through the rock walls, will go vibrating all over the world for hundreds of years, maybe, until they will fasten on to some brain and work out there. Such is the power of thought, of sincerity, and of purity of purpose."

The Thailand rescue operation's success just exhibited practically what Swamiji said in the steps above.

The depravity of our cadre is no better.

It is up to us to see whether we are ready to follow them.

R. Manimohan,

Secretary General,

AIACEGEO

ACTION TAKEN REPORT OF THE SG PLACED AT THE BANGALORE AIEC

 

ACTION TAKEN REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE SECRETARY GENERAL BEFORE THE AIEC OF THE AIACEGEO AT BENGALURU ON 30.06.2018

 

Dear friends and comrades,

             I welcome you all for this AIEC.  This is the second one after this AIB took charge at the Convention held at Chennai in May 2017. I place on record our sincere thanks to the Karnataka unit for hosting this meeting.  The action taken subsequent to the last AIEC at Mumbai on 10.12.2017 is as below:

 ORGANAISATIONAL:

            We have submitted 4498 DDO Certificates from 18 Units, to the Board on 17.01.2018.  Subsequently some DDO Certificates have been received from our units, which have been retained on hand in order to consolidate and submit the same before the Board.  The details of the Unit wise DDO Certificates submitted and on hand is as below:

 

Sl. No	Name of the Unit	No of DDO certificates
		Submitted	On hand	Total
1	Bhopal		63	63
2	Chandigarh	169		169
3	Chattisghargh	123		123
4	Chennai	477		477
5	Coimbatore	129		129
6	Jabalpur	29		29
7	Jaipur	326		326
8	Karnataka	692	106	798
9	Kerala	386		386
10	Kolkatta	847		847
11	Madurai	67		67
12	Malwa	137		137
13	Mumbai	439	382	821
14	Nashik	120		120
15	Pune	134		134
16	Salem	82		82
17	Surat	166	114	280
18	Tirunelveli	38		38
19	Trichirapally		154	154
20	Vidharbha	137		137
	Total	4498	819	5317

Apart from the above, 4 of the Units which are with us, Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Goa and Lucknow (Customs Prev) are yet to submit DDO Certificates.

There are elected units functioning in 7 seven units such as Delhi, Guntur, Hyderabad, Lucknow GST, P.RJ (Patna Ranchi and Jharkand), Rajkot and Tirupati.  They are yet to decide on whether to support our AIB or not.

Though as per records 11 units such as Agra, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Kandla, Kanpur, Kutch, Meerut, Nellore, Shillong, Vadodara, Vizag exist, it is not known whether they are functioning with elections conducted during the past 2 years.

Though it is amply clear that we enjoy the support of a good majority in terms of number of Units, Commissionerates and paid up members, even after producing certificates to establish more than 35% membership at the All India level, the Board has procrastinated over the matter of renewal of recognition.

The reasons are obvious and I leave it to the august house to deliberate and decide on the future course of action.

Agitations under the banner of COC:

          Agitations had been launched by the COC of Associations in the CBIC in February 2018.  After finalising the charter of demands passed in meetings held in all parts of the country on 01.02.2018 in which members of the constituent associations participated massively, a Demands Day was observed on 28.02.2018 by wearing black badges and conducting lunch hour demonstration with massive participation all over the country.  We thank the Bhubaneswar unit specially for having participated in the protests, even though they had not yet formally taken a decision to join our AIB at that point of time.

          Subsequently, the COC decided to launch its next phase of agitation.  This AIB sent letters to the FM & Revenue Secretary and all our 24 units have also sent the letters to the FM & Revenue Secretary on the COC Charter.  However, the next leg of the phase involving the members is yet to be completed.  Reports pertaining to number of members who have submitted the letters in each unit could be stated in this forum for records.

          While preperations were on for conducting the Dharna on 20.06.2018 as per the COC call, information was received that the Member (Admn) had issued instructions to the officials in the Board and DGHRD to find out methods of dealing with the demands and he had also personally informed the delegation of the COC at Nagpur which met him on 15.06.2018 that he would deal with the issues positively upon assuming charge as the Chairman.  Accordingly the COC has deferred the call for Dharna, as on date.

PARMAR, SLP & DPC:

          We had been insisting upon the Board to give an undertaking to the Court that the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in N.R.PARMAR would be implemented within a time frame, as done in CBDT and to seek the permission of the Court to hold adhoc DPC to the post of ACs subject to regularisation after implementation of the said judgment.  The Board which all along was telling us that they will do so and also that they were on the verge of issuing a circular as in the case of CBDT, suddenly filed an SLP on a question of law as to whether the PARMAR judgment would apply to those who had joined prior to 1.3.86.  Copy of the SLP was received by our former President Com. Chandramouli, since he had impleded in the case on behalf of the AIACEGEO, before the Tribunal at Chennai.

          With his authorisation, we filed vakkalat and counter. Though in the counter also we had proposed to make the same demand as made before the Board, the Counsel stated that such a position could not be taken in an SLP and that when a question of law has been raised, we have to either agree with the question or disagree. Accordingly, seeing that the question which would relegate the seniors who joined propr to 1.3.86 as juniors to those who joined later, if such a premise were to be allowed, we have filed counter disagreeing with the question.  The grounds of appeal made by the department were also found to be faulty, inconsistent and contradictory.

          The department, upon find our counter uncomfortable and since we had also linked all the discriminations heaped upon our cadre so far by the differential treatment meted out, tried to get into the arena, our former SG with a claim that he was the real AIACEGEO.  When the Hon’ble Supreme Court brushed aside the IA filed by him, then the department delivered their reply to our counter.

          The details of the proceedings in the case so far and the manner in which the SLP had been dealt with, IA admitted without admission of the SLP as such, even after several hearings and short adjournments, are already known to all of us.  The expenses which had to be met in the case so far will be seen in the Accounts when they are discussed.

One of the the Hon’ble Judges who actively involved in the matter during the hearing and passed orders on 26.04.2018 allowing the IA of the department without admitting the SLP, retired on 4.5.18 and also subsequently appointed as the President of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) on 01.06.2018.  The adhoc DPC has also been completed and postings are awaited.  While we congratulate all the newly promoted ACs, we also place on record our concern as to whether the real seniors had been denied promotion as of now and whether they will get their promotions at all, if the PARMAR decision is not implemented.

The SLP is again to be taken up for final disposal in the month of August 2018. This forum has to decide regarding the further course of action in the matter.

Pay anomaly issues:

          During the meeting with the Member (Admn) on 17.01.2018, we submitted records showing that while the anomaly between the scales of Superintendents of C.Ex with that the DSP has escalated with the former on Level 8 of the matrix while the later has been placed on Level 10, another anomaly has also hit our cadre, with the Superintendents of Posts also placed ahead on Level 9.  While the Member (Admn) agreed that the anomaly with regard to the post of Superintendents of Posts was within the terms of reference of anomaly due to the 7^th CPC, the anomaly with that of the DSP of CBI may not qualify under the terms.  We thereafter explained how the said anomaly also would be covered under the terms of anomaly in the 7^th CPC because the 7^th CPC had made a reference to the 5^th CPC recommendations with was erroneous.  The Member accepted our arguments and requested us to give a brief on the said details, which was submitted on the very next day.

          However, since we are not part of the Staff Side of the JCM, we were not invited for the Anomaly Committee meeting of the Revenue Department and we are given to understand that the point of anomaly with reference to the DSP of CBI had been ruled as not falling under the scope of the 7^th CPC anomaly.  We have taken up the matter with the Revenue Secretary and in consultation with the sister organisations in CBDT, we will move ahead.

Pay scale case in Mumbai:

          As discussed in the earlier AIEC, the matter pertaining to the pay scale case filed by the Income Tax Associations and pending before the Hon’ble High Court of Mumbai, due to which our case before the Pune CAT is pending, was discussed with the ITGOA Office Bearers at Kolkatta.  Efforts are on to get the case before the High Court heard early and diposed.

5400 case:

          Subsequent to the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of M. Subramaniam, several more judgements in High Courts and Tribunals have come out on the same lines.  We have repeatedly pressed the CBEC to take up this matter with the DOPT for acceptance of the Supreme Court Order in rem.  The Member has been repeatedly assuring us that it will be got done. However, the latest news is that the Law Ministry has given an opinion that a Review Petition should be filed by the department in the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

Customs Re organisation:

          In the petition filed by us, the Hon’ble CAT, Chennai, had ordered that if any Service Conditions of Superintendents of Central Excise are affected due to the Customs re-organisation, such an exercise should be undertaken only after consultations with us.  The Board, initially which held back the Notification due to the above order, later changed some of its proposals (as learnt initially) and effected a re-organisation not affecting the present service conditions. However, it is expected that another round or re-organisation is on the cards and we have to carefully be watchful as to whether any conditions are altered and if so take required steps.  In this regard, the expenses of the case met by the Chennai unit are yet to be reimbursed to them.

Local issues:

Whenever local issues required the attention and intervention of the AIB, we have taken them up and acted upon them.  One issue pertaining to Bhopal wherein the GS has been transferred out of Bhopal has been taken up with the CC, Bhopal zone and his relief has been kept in abeyance as of now.  The CC has assured to intervene and we are looking forward for a favourable settlement of the issue.

The issue regarding insult to the Officers in Nashik and Mumbai from assesses has also been taken up with the Board and issue of instructions to field formations has been sought.

During the above period under report, I have visited Bangalore and Kolkatta and addressed meetings.  The members have interacted and have raised vital issues, which have been pursued by this Association. 

The Bhubaneswar unit and Lucknow Customs Preventive Unit have joined us during this period and though Lucknow Customs Preventive Unit were not able to attend in person, they have conveyed their support.  We are happy to have delegates from Bhubaneswar unit amidst us here.

We have also invited other units to come as observers so that they can come to their own conclusion on their decision to support us and enable unity.

Once again I place on record our sincere thanks to all units which have been performing with full vigour and thank the Office Bearers and volunteers of the Karnataka Unit for the exceedingly nice arrangements made for this meeting.

 

R. Manimohan

Secretary General