Office bearers of the All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association were in Delhi from 23.07.2014 to 25.07.2014 for meeting with senior most officers of CBEC and DGHRD on many issues like Stagnation, Regional Disparity, All India Seniority for Inspectors etc. The gist of the meetings is as under:-

 

Meeting with Member (P&V)

 

On 23.07.2014, the Office bearers of the All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association met the Member (P&V) and briefed her on Resolutions passed in the  recently held XVIII^th Convention of the Association and apprised her about the problems of stagnation, apprehensions that regional disparities in promotions of Inspectors to Superintendents of Central Excise are not being addressed in the CR.  The Office bearers requested her to ensure that the issue of stagnation & regional disparity must be addressed during implementation of Cadre Restructuring otherwise there will be flood of litigations across the country.  We reiterated the fact that the All India Seniority regime must be brought in to address the regional disparity.  In the course of  the meeting the DGHRD also joined and listened to us carefully and invited us to meet her on 24.07.2014 for detailed discussion on the subject.  During the meeting, the Member (P&V) and the DGHRD repeatedly assured us that residency period will not be decreased for promotion to the grade of the Superintendent during implementation of Cadre Restructuring. 

 

Apart from above, all major issues concerning the cadre were also discussed.  

Meeting with the DGHRD

 

We met the DGHRD on 24.07.2014.  Ms. Renu K. Jagdev, ADG (HRM) and Sh. V. K. Singh, Addl. Director were also present in the meeting.  We submitted our written Resolutions passed during the 18^th Convention and had a detailed discussion on Stagnation & Regional Disparity.  We suggested many solutions to the problem and asked them to eradicate the problems before implementation of the CR. We forcefully but with due regard and on the basis of court judgements and several documentary support demanded the All India Seniority regime before implementation of CR. We asked the outcome (minutes) of the meeting held on 19.05.2014 in the chamber of the ADG (HRM) on “Unification of Examiner, Preventive Officer and Inspectors of Central Excise”.  We  expressed our anguish over the issue of not-providing the minutes despite several reminders.  She told us that the same has not been finalized yet and they will provide us as soon as they will prepare it.

 

We also sought information on the Study Group formed for addressing the  “Acute Stagnation in Group-B Executive grades”. We were accordingly informed of the  reasons for forming the Study Group. It is absolutely clear that this exercise has been undertaken by the CBEC pursuant to  AICEIA taking up the matter with Revenue Secretary, who subsequently directed CBEC to address the problem of stagnation.  Thus, this Study Group is the outcome of the meeting of Office bearers of All India Central Excise Inspectors’ Association and the Revenue Secretary held on 25.04.2014 during which he was  apprised of  the Stagnation in the grades of Inspector and Superintendent of Central Excise, Acute inter-cadre and intra-cadre disparities  in Promotions within Gr B executives of the CBEC, and highly unjust plans of CBEC for implementation of Cadre Restructuring ( copy of letter to the Revenue Secretary  uploaded on this  blog on 01.05.2014 may please be referred).  

 

The DGHRD told us that they are waiting for the approval of CR file from the MoS Finance, and no sooner than the same is cleared, Notifications concerned will be issued.  We strongly reiterated our demand that  the issue of Inspectors’ stagnation and regional disparity must address before or at least in course of implementation of CR. 

 

Matters  related to the amendments required in Recruitment Rules of the Superintendent of Central Excise,  and IRS (C&CEx) were also discussed.

 

Meeting with the Addl. Dir. (I&W)

 

 

The AICEIA has regularly been pursuing the matter of Health Insurance Scheme for CBEC employees and effective doubling of Children’s Education Allowance since more than a  year.  In this connection, we met Ms. Meenu S. Kumar, Addl. Director (I&W) and discussed these issues with her.  The Addl. Director (I&W) was very keen on the Health Insurance Scheme and we discussed all aspects of the proposed scheme.  The proposed Health Insurance Scheme will provide cashless access to Health care facilities to the family of working employees thereby enabling access to healthcare facilities for In-patient department i.e. Hospitalization in over 3000 hospitals/nursing homes across the country with an Annual Check up of the Government Employee once in a year. Initially the new scheme will be for two years as a pilot project, for providing health insurance cover to every employee of CBEC and his/her family worth    Rs. 2 lakhs for once year at a time from the date of the contract.   She also apprised us that more “Add On” or benefits will also be sought from the company providing the Health Insurance Scheme. The Addl. Director (I&W) told us that due to huge financial burden on welfare fund i.e. approx. Rs. 16.85 Crore per annum, a share of the cost of the insurance must also be borne by employee and the same will cost approx.  Rs. 1500/- per annum, which is a nominal amount for such great benefits. 

 

During the meeting, the difficulties in getting through the proposal floated earlier by DGHRD for  effective doubling of the   amount of Children’s Education Allowance for CBEC employees   was explained by the Addl. Dir. (I&W).   

 

During the meeting we were informed  that soon mobile phones/laptops and mobile connection may be provided to CBEC personnel, since the matter is being actively considered.      

 

 

Meeting with Sh. Prakash Chand, Consultant

 

On 24.07.2014, we met Sh. Prakash Chand, Consultant, and member of the Study Group referred to supra, and apprised him in detail the problems that our cadre is  facing.  We presented  the stagnation and disparities issues and the remedial measures proposed by AICEIA . All issues were discussed threadbare us. He informed  that  that a meeting will be held soon to discuss the matter in detail.  The ADG Nacen, New Delhi has subsequently convened  the said meeting will be held on 31^st July, 2014.  

 

 

Apart from the above, we also met several officers at CBEC, DGHRD offices and interacted with the office bearers of other Associations & Confederation as well. 

Yours fraternally,

Abhishek Kamal
Secretary General