CIRCULAR

CIRCULAR

A meeting of the members of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association, Rajkot Branch is being convened at 10:00 AM on 30.01.2010 Saturday at below mentioned address :

Room No. 401,
Central Excise Bhavan,
Race Course Ring Road,
Rajkot.

The main agenda of the meeting is as under :

1. To discuss the issue of proposal for creation of separate Customs Zone Cadre in Gujarat.
2. To brief the discussion held and decisions taken in the All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association CEC meeting held at Jaipur on 23.01.2010 & 24.01.2010. The meeting was attended by the Secretary and the President of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association, Rajkot Branch.
3. Any other issue the members would like to discuss and pass resolution.

All the members of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association, Rajkot Branch are requested to attend the meeting.


(Dilip J. Pandya)
Secretary

Copy submitted to the Zonal Secretary, AICEIA, West Zone.

CEC Meeting held at Jaipur

The 2nd Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting was held on 23rd and 24th January, 2010 at Jaipur (Rajasthan) by the Rajasthan Circle of AICEIA. Shri Uttam R. Bhalsod, President and Shri Dilip J. Pandya, Secretary of Rajkot Branch attended the meeting.

The open session of the meeting was inaugurated by Shri R.K.Singh, Commissioner of Central Excise, Jaipur-II.

Mainly following issues along with other issues were discussed in the closed session :

• Restoration of grade pay of Inspectors to Rs. 4600/- and fixation of pay on promotion or by direct recruit who have joined before 01.01.2006.
  
• Removal of stagnation.
  
• Modification in the Constitution of AICEIA.
  
• Cadre Restructuring.

Three new units i.e. Nasik joined the Association right before the CEC and Indore & Bhopal joined the Association in the CEC.

The CEC decided to opt for joint movement with the other counterparts in the revenue department and also to form a Joint Action Committee along with the Superintendent Association in our department. Action programme on the pending issues shall be decided in consultation with the Superintendent Association.

A warm welcome

All India Central Excise Inspectors' Association

Rajkot Branch

welcomes

all newly recruited Inspectors.

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*

Welcome to the Department.

Diwali Greetings to all members of the Association.

* * *

Happy Dipawali

&

Prosperous New Year.

* * *

Federation Circular No. 04/09

Date : 08.07.09

Circular- 04/09

Comrades,

The CEC meeting of the All India Association held in Chandigarh from 3rd and 4th of July 2009. 17 circles and branches from all over the country attended the meeting and took part in deliberation.

The meeting was inaugurated by Chief Commissioner Sri D.S.Sra and presided over by our All India President Sri Arun Zachariah.P. the minutes of the 15th Convention held at Daman was read out by Com. Balraj and the house confirmed the same with some minor changes.

The Secretary General presented his action taken report to the house and the Treasurer Sri Suman Chakraborty also placed the statement of A/c before the house for deliberation. Besides this an opinion of the house was also sought for on the agenda of a one day token strike and a letter from the Secretary General. ITEF was circulated within the house on the above matter.

On 4th of July the proposal on restructuring was discussed at length and suggestion from different circles/ branches received, we shall finalise the proposal shortly and after submission of the same it will be circulated to every branch/ circle.

All the units took part in deliberation and the meeting decided that the Inspectors of Central Excise should commence an agitation on the following agenda:

1. The anomaly in the pay scale consequent to the merger of 3 pay scales by the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 thereby placing the feeder cadre of Senior Tax Assistant and the promotional cadre of Inspector in the same grade pay.

2. The denial of notional fixation with effect from 01.01.1996 in the pre-revised scale of Rs. 6500-10500/-. The scale was granted on 21.04.04 in order to restore historical parity of pay scales with Inspectors of CBI & IB.

3. To review the clarification issued by DOE to CBEC denying the non-functional grade pay of Rs. 5400/- after 4 years of service in the grade pay of Rs. 4800/- to ACP recipient Inspectors.

4. Proper measures should be taken to remove acute stagnation of the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise and Inspector cadre organization should be included in the restructuring committee.

5. Inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the Anomaly committee.

The agitation programme would be as appended below.

1. Lunch Hour Demonstration in front of Chief Commissioner’s/ Commissioner’s offices through out the country, that should start from 15th July and it will be observed on every Wednesday in every head quarters for one month.

2. 25th to 28th of August wearing of Black Badges and Lunch hour Dharna in front the above mentioned Offices.

3. Memorandum is to be submitted on 28th in front of All chief commissioners for onward transmission to the Ministry.

4. Sending of post cards to Cabinet Secretary and Finance Minister on 9th of September.

5. Lunch our demonstrations will continue on every week followed by massive poster campaign with the mention of a probable strike action.

6. Pay boycott on 30th of September.

7. Third week of October office bearers will discuss about the feasibility of a strike action in the month of November.

In the entire period of our agitation persuasion will continue.

It was also decided that special initiative will be taken for Collection of D.D.O certificates within August 09 and Reorganisation of defunct circles and branches

The minutes of the meeting will be circulated shortly.

Comradely Yours

( Kousik Roy)

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

Notice for agitation given to the Chairman, CBEC by the Association.

Ref. No.CBEC/119/2009 Dated: 10.07.2009

To
Sri P.C.Jha,
The Chairman,
Central Board of Excise and Customs,
North Block,
New Delhi.

Sir,

Sub: Notice for agitation

The Inspectors of Central Excise are highly aggrieved by the inaction of the Ministry of Finance in resolving the legitimate demands made in respect of the following points.

1. The non rectification of anomaly in the pay scale consequent to the merger of 3 pay scales by the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008 thereby placing the feeder cadre of Senior Tax Assistant and the promotional cadre of Inspector in the same grade pay.

2. The denial of notional fixation with effect from 01.01.1996 in the pre-revised scale of Rs. 6500-10500/-. The scale was granted on 21.04.04 in order to restore historical parity of pay scales with Inspectors of CBI & IB.

3. To review the clarification issued by DOE to CBEC denying the non-functional grade pay of Rs. 5400/- after 4 years of service in the grade pay of Rs. 4800/- to ACP recipient Inspectors.

4. Lack of initiatives to remove acute stagnation of the cadre of Inspector of Central Excise and for non inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the restructuring committee.

5. Non - inclusion of Inspector cadre organization in the Anomaly committee.

The Central Executive Committee meeting of this Association held on 3rd & 4th of July at Chandigarh has decided to embark on an agitation programme from the 15th of July 2009 as per the enclosed schedule. We request you to take the initiative for an early redress of the issues raised.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

(Kousik Roy)
Secretary General

Encl: Charter of demands & agitation programme.

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Agitation Programme :

1. Lunch Hour Demonstration in front of Chief Commissioner’s/ Commissioner’s offices through out the country, that should start from 15th July and it will be observed on every Wednesday in every head quarters for one month.

2. 25th to 28th of August wearing of Black Badges and Lunch hour Dharna in front the above mentioned Offices.

3. Memorandum is to be submitted on 28th August in front of All chief commissioners for onward transmission to the Ministry.

4. Sending of post cards to Cabinet Secretary and Finance Minister on 9th of September.

5. Lunch our demonstrations will continue on every week followed by massive poster campaign with the mention of a probable strike action.

6. Pay boycott on 30th of September.

Transfer Policy for Rajkot Sector

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 12.05.2009 FOR TRANSFER POLICY FOR RAJKOT SECTOR

A meeting with the office bearers of the Superintendents (Group-B) and Inspectors (Group-B) association was held by the Chief Commissioner in his office.

The transfer/rotation /posting policy of Group-B Gazetted and Non-Gazetted officer of Customs and Central Excise in the Central Excise formations in the Rajkot Sector were debated upon.

Keeping in view the jurisdiction of the three commissionerates in Rajkot sector of Ahmedabad Central Excise Zone, transfer policy for Rajkot sector is framed as under :

For Rajkot and Bhavnagar Central Excise Commissionerate :

(1) The tenure for posting of an officer at the station where Commissionerate Headquarter is situated shall be of 6 years and at stations where the Divisional offices are situated, it shall be four year. Tenure for other stations shall be two years.

(2) Officers due for retirement on superannuation within 02 years of 31st May of the AGT year may be considered for retention at the current station of their posting, if they so desire.

(3) To the extent possible, the officer shall be rotated every two year from sensitive charge to non-sensitive charge and vise-versa.

(4) In case of deficiency/vacancy in the number of officer in Bhavnagar Commissionerate, officers shall be posted in following manner :

(i) the officers who are willing to work in Bhavnagar Commissionerate may be given priority;
(ii) newly recruited officers shall be posted at Bhavnagar Commissionerate;
(iiI) officers posted from Ahmedabad Sector may be posted to Bhavnagar Commissionerate
(iv) If there is shortage of officers, even after above exercise, then newly promoted officers may be posted and, if still required, senior most officers in terms of tenure in Rajkot Commissionerate may be posted at Bhavnagar Commissionerate.
(v) Except on administrative exigencies, tenure of officer posted to Bhavnagar from Ahmedabad sector as well as Rajkot Central Excise will normally be same.

For Jamnagar Customs Commissionerate :

(1) Tenure for customs formation shall be four years. However, officers may be transferred to Central Excise, Rajkot/Bhavnagar Commissionerate at any time on request on genuine ground or administrative requirements.

(2) To the extent possible, the officer shall be rotated from sensitive charge to non-sensitive charge and vise-versa.

(3) Officers who are willing to continue in Customs formation after completion of their tenure, may be retained on specific recommendation of Commissioner Customs, Jamnagar. In such case, the Commissioner, Jamnagar shall forward a list of willing officer alongwith his recommendation to the Sector Cadre Controlling authority during AGT.

(4) If the sufficient number of officers are not available even after calling for the options of the officer in the Excise formation and also after retaining the willing officer in Customs, officers with the longest tenure in Rajkot / Bhavnagar may be posted to Customs Commissionerate, Jamnagar. Priority for such posting may be accorded to officers who have not worked in Jamnagar Customs earlier.

General guidelines for Transfer / Rotation / Posting :

(1) In allocation of officers amongst Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar Commissionerates, the administrative control shall continue to vest with the Commissioner, Central Excise, Rajkot - the Cadre Controlling Authority of the Sector.

(2) Keeping in view the educational requirement of school going children of the officers, the transfer orders should, as far as possible, by the end of April.

(3) To maintain the transparency in transfer and posting the list of officers due for transfer/rotation shall be placed on notice board in advance.

(4) History of postings of the officers shall be taken into consideration for postings & placement of officers.

(5) Normally, officers on return from deputation will be posted to non-sensitive charges. However, based on administrative exigencies, exception may be made to this by the Commissioner concerned.

(6) Three places of choice shall be called for from the officer who are due for transfer and to the extent possible, due consideration shall be given to the choices given by the officer.

(7) To the extent possible, the ratio of sanctioned strength to working strength shall be maintained equally in all Commisionerates.

(8) All officers transferred from one place to another shall invariably be relieved on or before the stipulated date. Representation, if any, made by an officer for retention/change and decision on such representation shall be taken by the authority immediately.

(9) Piecemeal transfers in the mid-term shall be avoided, except when it is necessary to do so to fill up post arising out of promotion to higher grade or retirement of officer or on administrative grounds.

(10) As long as vacancies are available at same station, both husband and wife shall be posted at one station only. If it is not possible, they may be posted to the place closest to each other, as circumstances permits.

(11) As a transitional arrangement, no officer, unless he /she has opted for transfer, shall be transferred out during AGT 2009 if such officer has been at the current station for less than 2 years. This will be applicable only for AGT-2009.

(12) Any deviation / relaxation from the policy will be done only as per approval of the Chief Commissioner, Central Excise, Ahmedabad. This will include deviations on health ground.

This is issued with the approval of the Chief Commissioner, Central Excise, Ahmedabad Zone.

Deputy Commissioner (CCO)

Central Excise,

Ahmedabad Zone

Dated 13th May' 2009

F.No. II/3-11/CCO/2002 Pt.I

Draft Transfer Policy for Rajkot Sector

Draft transfer/posting/rotation policy submitted to the Chief Commisisoner, Central Excise, Ahmedabad Zone on 04.05.2009 by the Office Bearers of both the Associations of Rajkot Sector.

Draft transfer / rotation / posting policy for Rajkot Sector in respect of Group ‘B’ Executive (Gazetted & Non-Gazetted) officers.

Till date various transfer / rotations / posting policies were framed by different Chief Commissioners, which also laid down guidelines for effecting transfers and rotations for Rajkot Sector. There is a need for separate transfer / rotation / posting policy for Rajkot Sector as the earlier transfer / posting policy dated 27.02.2004 does not fully cover the guidelines for transfer of staff in Rajkot Sector taking into consideration the need and constrains, geographical area of the Sector and other factors.

The vast jurisdiction of the Rajkot Sector stretches over 600 kms. from one end to another. Rajkot sector boasts of one of the longest coastline any Sector/Commissionerate in the country would be overseeing. Many postings dotting this coastline are situated in very harsh, inhospitable and arid terrains or places. In all the Commissionerates of Rajkot Sector, the jurisdiction of Division/Range/Custom House is very vast and the area and postings under it are quite far-flung from one another even within one Commissionerate and normally there is a case of shifting entire family and domicile on occasion of transfer within one Commissionerate.

Keeping the above vital factors, transfer / posting and rotation policy of this Sector needs complete overhaul and merits to be re-framed separately. Therefore, the following suggestions for transfer policy are hereby put forth.

For Rajkot and Bhavnagar Central Excise Commissionerate :

(1) The tenure for posting of an officer at the station where Commissionerate Headquarter is situated shall be of 6 years and at other stations where the Divisional offices are situated, it shall be four year. Two years tenure, for a station having only range office.

(2) The officer shall be rotated every two year from sensitive charge to non-sensitive charge and vise-versa invariably.

(3) Concerned commissioner may be directed to identify the sensitive and non-sensitive posting in accordance with Board’s / DG (Vig) guidelines in consultation with the Association.

(4) No officer shall be posted repetitively to same and/or sensitive posting. All officers shall be given equal opportunity to work at sensitive posting, so that he/she can get exposure to different kind of work.

(5) The tenure of officers posted in Service Tax (Division/Range) shall be for a period not exceeding two years.

(6) In case of deficiency/vacancy in the number of officer in Bhavnagar Commissionerate, officers shall be posted in following manner maintaining the hierarchy as below :
(i) the officers who are willing to work in Bhavnagar Commissionerate may be given first priority;

(ii) newly recruited officers shall be posted at Bhavnagar Commissionerate;

(iii) officers shall be posted from Ahmedabad Sector to Bhavnagar Commissionerate to maintain inter-sector working strength ratio between Rajkot and Ahmedabad sectors. They shall not be, normally, posted to Rajkot/Jamnagar Commissionerate, as long as there is shortage in the staff in Bhavnagar Commissionerate;

(iv) officers transferred from other sector/zone shall be posted to Bhavnagar Commissionerate;

(v) even after above exercise, if there is shortage of officers, then newly promoted officers may be posted and, if still required, senior most officers in terms of tenure in Rajkot Commissionerate may be posted at Bhavnagar Commissionerate in rotations, for a period not exceeding one year in both the cases.

For Jamnagar Customs Commissionerate :

(1) Tenure for customs formation shall be four years. However, officers may be transferred to Central Excise, Rajkot/Bhavnagar Commissionerate on request on genuine grounds or administrative requirements provided the concerned officer has not done the sensitive tenure.

(2) The officer shall be rotated every two year from sensitive charge to non-sensitive charge and vise-versa invariably.

(3) Officers shall be posted from Rajkot and Bhavnagar Central Excise Commissionerates on proportionate basis.

(4) Willingness shall be called for from the officers in advance, who are willing to switch over to Custom formation from Central Excise and priority shall be accorded to such officers during AGT.

(5) Officers who are willing to continue in Customs formation after completion of their tenure, they shall be retained on specific recommendation of Commissioner Customs, Jamnagar. In such case, the Commissioner, Jamnagar shall forward a list of willing officer alongwith his recommendation to the Sector Cadre Controlling authority during AGT. Thereafter, the tenure of officers retained in Customs will start afresh along-with other officers. They shall be posted to non-sensitive charge and, in any case, shall not continue at the same posting after extending Custom tenure.

(6) If sufficient number of willing officers is available from Central Excise formation to switch over to Customs formation, the request of any officers for retention in Customs shall not be entertained.

(7) If the sufficient number of officers are not available even after calling for the willingness of the officer in the Excise formation and also after retaining the willing officer in Customs, the senior most officers who have never worked in Customs shall be posted to Customs Commissionerate, Jamnagar and then after “first-in – first-out” policy shall be adopted for posting to the Customs Commisionerates, Jamnagar.

General guidelines for Transfer / Rotation / Posting :

(1) In allocation of officers amongst Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar Commissionerates, the administrative control shall continue to vest with the Commissioner, Central Excise, Rajkot - the Cadre Controlling Authority of the Sector.

(2) Admissions process in schools normally starts in the month of January or February. So the transfer orders should be issued latest by the end of March and Officers in any case should be relieved by the end of April end.

(3) To maintain the transparency in transfer and posting the list of officers due for transfer/rotation shall be placed on notice board in the month of January.

(4) Three places of choice shall be called for from the officer who are due for transfer and whereas possible due consideration shall be given to the choices given by the officer.

(5) After completion of two years tenure in sensitive posting, officer posted to non-sensitive charge shall not be given additional charge of sensitive posting.

(6) The ratio of sanctioned strength to working strength shall be maintained equally in all Commisionerates.

(7) Time period / tenure for transfer and posting shall be counted from AGT to AGT if the officer has been transferred during the course of AGT, irrespective of the fact that the officer has joined/relieved after a gap of couple of month after issue of AGT orders.

(8) All officers transferred from one place to another shall invariably be relieved on or before the stipulated date. Representation, if any, made by an officer for retention/change and decision on such representation shall be taken by the authority immediately. Both the process shall be completed within 15 days of the order, otherwise order shall be effected without any delay.

(9) Piecemeal transfers in the mid-term shall be avoided, except when it is necessary to do so to fill up post arising out of promotion to higher grade or retirement of officer or under extreme cases in consultation with the Association.

(10) Officer, returning from DRI, DGCEI, SEZ, EIB, International Airport, CH-Kandla, etc., shall not be posted to sensitive charge before completion of two years’ cooling off period.

(11) As long as vacancies are available at same station, both husband and wife shall be posted at one station only. If it is not possible, they may be posted to the place closest to each other, as circumstances permits.

(12) As per Boards guidelines the chief executives of the Association and two other office bearers should be granted the facility of seeking transfer to the headquarter of the appropriate head of the administration.

(13) Representation of mutual transfer at own cost may be considered. Mutual inter-formation transfer representation at own cost may also be considered favorably.

It is requested to ensure that the above guidelines are followed scrupulously in the matter of transfer, rotation and posting of officers in Rajkot Sector.

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Minutes of meeting of the Association held on 20.02.2009 at Jamnagar

A meeting of the members of All India Central Excise Inspectors Association, Rajkot Branch was held on 20.02.2009 at Jamnagar from 19:00 hrs onwards. On invitation, office bearers and members of Superintendent Association, Group ‘C’ Ministerial Officers’ Association and Group ‘D’ Officers’ Association also remained present in the meeting. At the inception, a warm welcome was given to all the office bearers and the members of the Associations.

The main agenda of the meeting was to nominate divisional representatives at local level so that the functioning of the Association becomes more effective and for effective interaction, correspondence and coordination between the Association and the administration. Decision for appointing Divisional Representative was unanimously taken by the members of the Association and following Divisional Representatives were nominated.

1. Customs Headquarter, Jamnagar - I. S. Rangwala
2. Customs Division, Jamnagar - D. V. Somaiya
3. Customs Division, Porbandar - Hitesh Joshi
4. Customs Division, Bhavnagar - Nishant Bhatt
5. Central Excise Division, Jamnagar - N. C. Gajariya
6. Central Excise Division, Gandhidham - N. S. Maheshwari

During the meeting the members of the Association discussed various issues effecting the cadre and took decision unanimously on following issues :

(i) Inspectors working in place of ministerial officers : It is observed that the working of the Inspectors cadre is adversely affecting as on one hand there are number of vacancies in Inspectors cadre and on another hand the Inspectors are utilized for ministerial work. It has been decided to write a letter to the Commissioner to take up the matter with higher authorities to fill up the vacancies on priority basis in both the cadres i.e. Inspectors as well as Ministerial cadre.

(ii) Collection of membership and authorization forms : Members were requested to submit their membership and authorization forms at the earliest so that same may submitted to the DDOs for further deduction of membership fees.

(iii) Shifting of Headquarters office of Jamnagar Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate to Rajkot : More than 75% of the staff working the HQ Office Jamnagar hails from place out of Jamnagar. Further, Jamnagar is geographically situated at the corner of the jurisdiction. Therefore, for shake of better administrative reach and geographical location, it has been decided to take up the matter with the administration for shifting of Headquarters office of Jamnagar Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate to Rajkot.

(iv) Transfer and posting policy : A number of transfer policies have been framed by the administration at Ahmedabad, but none have clarity regarding the issues specially touching the Rajkot Sector. Looking to the geographical concerns and jurisdiction of Rajkot Sector there is a need to formulate a separate transfer and posting policy for Rajkot Sector comprising of Central Excise, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Customs Commissionerate Jamnagar. A draft transfer and posting policy was prepared and put before the members present at the meeting. The draft policy was discussed in detail and same was finalized. It has been decided to submit the finalized transfer and posting policy to the administration with a request to frame a new policy for Rajkot Sector considering the suggestions given by the Association.

(v) Deputation to other formations : It was brought to the notice by some the member of the Association that the willingness for deputation posting called for from other agencies are not being circulated and forwarded by the administration. It has been decided that the administration should be requested to circulate and forward all the willingness for deputation postings without any pre-conditions.

(vi) Conducting of JCM : It was brought to the notice by the member of the Association that JCM is not being conducted in some of the formations. It has been decided to write a letter to all the formation with a request to conduct the JCM as per the instructions / guidelines in this regard.

(vii) Formation of joint co-ordination committee : It was observed that there is a lack of co-ordination between the Associations of various cadres. A proposal was put forward by the office bearers of all the other Associations present in the meeting for formulating a joint co-ordination committee comprising of office bearers of all the association working under the jurisdiction of Rajkot Sector. This would result in strengthening the Associations for taking up the matters effectively and strongly with the administration. The proposal has been accepted and decided to formulate the joint co-ordination committee in due course of time.

The meeting concluded with the vote of thanks by the President.


(Dilip J. Pandya)
General Secretary

Date : 25.02.2009

Deputation – Preventive Officer in KASEZ

Willingness for deputation of Preventive Officer for posting at Kandla Special Economic Zone, Gandhidham (Kutch) has been called for from the eligible officer by the A.O. (Estt), CCE-HQ, Rajkot vide F.No. II/13-03/2008-Estt dated 11.02.2009. Willing officers may send their applications on or before 19.02.2009 through Head of Office.