ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2002

(Mumbai, 6th & 7th September, 2002)

MINUTES OF THE WORKING COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE All INDIA FEDERATION OF SUPERINTENDENTS OF CUSTOMS HELD AT MUMBAI ON 15TH SEPTEMBER, 2001

The meeting was presided over by the President of the federation Shri Sunil Dole. Before the start of the proceedings, as proposed by the Secretary General of the Federation Shri Anupam Majumdar, one minute silence was observed to pay respect to our departed comrades S/Shri K.G.Sriraman and M.K.Moitra.

President Shri Sunil Dole then called the meeting to order. After his welcome address, Shri Dole informed the members that the present working committee constituted by the elected members of the constituent associations has become functional by way of automatically dissolving the earlier committee in terms of the Constitution of the federation as enacted on 30.09.2000 in the all India convention, Mumbai and the decision taken therein. He also informed the members that while scrutinizing our application for recognition, the Board officials had raised objection that the pattern of the past committee was not in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the federation. However, necessary corrections have now been made.
He then invited the members to deliberate on the following agenda points:

1. Cadre restructuring in CBEC.

2. Amendment to the Gr. A Recruitment Rules and Promotion to Gr. A at the earliest in terms of the judgement dt. 10.07.2001 of Hon'ble CAT, Mumbai on O.A. No.485/99.

3. Creation of an unorganised Gr.A Service in the CBEC like the Central Secretariat Service to have better promotional avenues.

4. Extension of the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Customs beyond the Municipal limits.

5. Allocation of job of collecting service tax from customs related services.

6. Recognition of the federation under the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993.

7. Finalisation of the date and venue of the Annual General Meeting.

8. Any other points with the permission of the Chair.

Point No.1:

Initiating the discussion, Secretary General Shri Majumdar informed the members of the latest position of the cadre restructuring. He also mentioned that even on demand the Board was not considering to increase the number of the posts of Asst. Commissioners from 465 and it would create a severe bottleneck for promotion of about 12,000 Gr. B. Officers. He suggested for a joint agitation with the Central Excise Superintendents' Federation for the creation of the unorganized Gr.A. Services in CBEC. He suggested to club the agenda point no.3 with this agenda. He then clarified and explained the details of the proposal of the creation of unorganized Gr. A Services, which is existing in number of depts. including the Secretariat Service.

It was also demanded by Shri Majumdar that the Supdts, who have received the pay scale of Asst. Commissioner by way of the ACP Scheme, may be given functional postings as Asst. Commissioners as it would not incur any additional expenditure and also reduce the burden on the existing Asst. Commissioners to speed up the work and increase efficiency. Jt. Secretary of the Federation Shri S.P.Dudeja demanded that the Gr. A. Recruitment Rules be amended to make it 75:25 for promote and direct instead of the present 50:50 as it has been seen that for last 20 years or more the direct recruitment was never more than 25%. Therefore, it is evident that the requirement of direct officers is never more than 25%.

Participating in the discussion, Shri A.Bandyopadhyay, the General Secretary of Kolkata Association expressed that the present proposal of the cadre restructuring will benefit only the Gr. A. officers to the extent of more than 125% for their scope of promotion whereas the Gr. B officers might get only 7%. He demanded to end such injustice.

Shri M.Mishra, General Secretary of Chennai Association proposed that on one hand we should fight to get justice by increasing our promotional prospects and on the other we must demand to get it implemented soon to reach the benefit to our senior members, who are about to retire from service.

After a detailed discussion on the proposals made, it was decided that all these proposals now discussed being appropriate and just, efforts would be made to get those implemented.

Point No.2:

Secretary General Shri Majumdar briefed the members about the latest position of the issue and informed that in spite of our pursuance, the Board was yet to take any positive steps to do the necessary amendments in the Gr. A Recruitment Rules to our favour in terms of the judgment of the Hon'ble CAT, Mumbai in O.A. No. 485/99. After a brief discussion it was decided to pursue the matter further and take all necessary steps to get the amendment done before the cadre restructuring is implemented by the Ministry.

Point No.3:

This Point has been discussed and finalized along with point no.1.

Point No.4:

Initiating the discussion Shri Dwarika Prasad, the General Secretary of Mumbai Association presented that the matter being an old issue, it did not require an elaborate clarification and demanded that the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Customs (General) be extended to the adjoining Municipalities so that the existing customs work in the EOUs is not handed over to central excise only on the consideration of jurisdiction. After a brief discussion it was decided that the associations would prepare their case in terms of their respective requirements and write directly to the Board with a copy to the federation, who would pursue the matter.

Point No.5:

Shri Majumdar informed that the demands have already been made on this issue but the Board is yet to respond or react. It was decided to pursue the matter.

Point No.6:

Members were informed by Shri Majumdar that the matter of Recognition of our federation has been kept under the active consideration of the Board in file F. No. B-12017/15/2000Ad (IVA) and it was learnt from the concerned Under Secretary that it being the first case before the Board involving the cadre from all over India, it would require an in depth scrutiny as a sample case by all the concerned including the D.O.P. & T and thus it might take some time.

Shri R. Govindaraju, the President of Chennai Association desired to pursue the matter at the level of MOS for its speedy finalisation and requested for providing him the copies of correspondences on the issue. It was decided to pursue the matter by the federation as well as through Shri Govindaraju.

Point No.7:

After a brief discussion it was agreed upon by the Mumbai Association to host the next AGM. It was decided that the tentative date of AGM would be in the month of December 2001 depending on the finalisation of the recognition process and other suitability of the federation. The date of AGM would be intimated to the associations well in advance. Shri S.A.S. Nawaz of Cochin Association suggested that the federation may take initiative for the formation of Superintendents' Association at Visakhapatnam and Goa. Shri Majumdar informed that such process has already been initiated and it would be most likely that they would also join the next AGM of the federation.

Point No.8:

The following points were selected with the permission of the Chair for further discussion:

a) All India seniority list of the Supdts of Customs.

b) ACP for all Supdts, who joined as grade-II Prev. Officers.

(a) Shri Majumdar, Secretary General of the federation sponsored the point and brought to the notice of the members that the existing seniority list is almost exhausted and it cannot cater the required large number of names, those will be needed to implement the ensuing promotions and, therefore, a fresh all India seniority list is urgently required to be issued. He also mentioned that the up-to-date seniority lists of the Custom Houses will be needed for the purpose and all the associations may get it done immediately at their Custom Houses.

(b) Shri R.K.Kar, President of Kolkata Association sponsored the point and brought to the notice of the members that some of the Supdts, who joined as P.O. II, are not being given the benefits under the ACP Scheme though they have completed the required number of years in service. He demanded that all of them must be given the pay scale under the ACP Scheme. Shri Majumdar informed that a similar problem is also being faced by a large number of Central Excise Supdts, who joined as Sub-Inspectors, and the matter is under examination by the Board as to whether those Supdts were financially upgraded at the time of their becoming P.O.Gr.-I/Inspector. It was then decided to pursue the matter.

Finally, Shri Anil B.Manek of Mumbai Association raised the vote of thanks.

All the points having been discussed and all the decisions taken unanimously, President Shri Sunil Dole concluded the meeting.

Sd/- (Sunil Dole) President

Sd/- (Anupam Majumdar) Secretary General