AICEIA Circular 07/2009

Date : 22.09.09
Circular- 07/09

Comrades,
In our last circular we had mentioned that post 09.09.09 situation would be reviewed for chalking out the further course of action.

In view of the fact that the low profile agitations done till date has not yielded the desired result and the members are demanding a more vigorous action, we informed the Chairman, CBEC that we are now constrained to plan for a strike. On receipt of the letter the Association was given appointment.

The Secretary General & Vice President (East) reached Delhi on 13th September and the President joined them on 14th. During this trip visits were made to various sections and met several officers including Joint Secretary (Admn) and Member (P&V).

During this visit, the President in pursuance of an RTI appeal, inspected 24 files from 17 ministries pertaining to the up gradation of grade pay from 4200 to 4600/4800 in the chambers of Director (IC), Dept. of Expenditure.

During our last update, we had informed regarding our visit to IFU in connection with the letter issued by the Deputy Controller of Accounts in the matter of ACP granted to Inspectors between 01.01.2006 and 30.08.2008. The IFU has returned the file to the Board office with a noting that the issue is clear and there was no necessity to make the reference to IFU. He advised the Board to take up the matter with Dy. C.A for withdrawing the same.

As Chairman was not in New Delhi, the meeting took place with Member (P&V) on 17.09.2008 at 4 PM. The Member had invited Deputy/Under Secretaries of all the concerned section for the meeting and this facilitated on the spot issuance of directions to the concerned sections.

We submitted before him that despite two meetings, one chaired by the Revenue Secretary and the other by JS (Per), Dept. of Expenditure the issue of grade pay of Inspectors still remain unresolved and we are under tremendous pressure from our own cadre and sister organizations to launch strike action. The Member requested us to desist from such an action at present since he has been informed that the Dept. of Expenditure would be convening another meeting in a short while.

We represented before the Member that the rejection of our demand with regard to notional fixation of pay in the scale 6500-10500 with effect from 01.01.1996 is unjustified since the pay scale has been granted in recognition of historical parity and without saddling us with any additional responsibility. The Member agreed to make a further reference to Dept. of Expenditure at the Chairman’s level.

In our earlier visit to Member (P &V) We brought to the notice of the Member the imbroglio caused by the letter of Dy. Controller of Accounts regarding post 01.01.2006 ACP recipients and highlighted the illegality of the order. This time in addition to that We submitted even though the matter is free from doubt necessary clarification has not been issued even after a lapse of 5 months and recovery has already started. We submitted that if another reference is made to Dy. C.A. the matter would be delayed further and requested him to issue the clarification. The Member asked the section to put it up to the Board for giving clarification. In the course of discussion, Member asked us to give copies of the order directing recoveries. Secretaries of Circles facing the issue may please forward scanned copies of relevant documents to us by e-mail.

We submitted that the denial of grade pay of Rs. 5400/- to Inspectors who received ACP as per the 99 Scheme is illegal and that the issue is all the more clear after the issuance of MACP order. The Member directed to make a reference to DOPT in this regard.

We raised our objections to the Board’s order permitting ICT on without loss of seniority in the Inspector’s grade and the ICT itself in the Superintendents cadre since it is against the instructions on the subject and the Recruitment Rules, we further requested Board to open the ICT in general for the interested Inspectors as a whole. The Member agreed to have a re-look of the matter.

We made reference to our earlier representations on enhancing the uniform allowance. The Member informed that they have already sent a proposal to the Dept. of Expenditure and they have raised a few queries, which would be answered shortly.

Regarding the on going restructuring exercise, we requested that we might be consulted before finalizing the proposals. The Member informed that one more committee has yet to give their report and after that we would be called for discussions.

The Income Tax organization is asking us to go for a joint strike to achieve the demand on grade pay. We have informed them regarding our commitment given to our Board and we can think about the strike only after the salted meeting with DOE is over. We are planning to call a meeting of the office bearers in New Delhi on the date succeeding the proposed meeting with the DOE, which would probably in the 2nd week of October. Officer bearers are requested to be ready to travel.

In the meantime All the Circle and Branch committees are further requested to organize massive campaign in anticipation of a probable strike action jointly in the Revenue Department.

All the Branch and circle committees are once again requested to submit the D.D.O. certificates by 15th of October 2009.

With greetings

Yours fraternally,
sd/-

( Kousik Roy)

The President & All Office Bearers of AICEIA(for wide circulation of inputs the Members of all Circles/Branches)