ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2004
(Mumbai, 6th & 7th September, 2004)
Annual Report
I welcome all the delegates, special invitees and the observers to this august occasion
of our all India conference at Mumbai.
I feel honoured to present the annual report of our federation.
Though the sequence of events flowed during the last years are believed to be fresh in the minds of you all but I feel an urge to reiterate some of those at the outset of this report -
At the time of constituting this federation, it was cited that in addition to the Govt's direction of forming cadre-based association and federations, the following were the main other need based issues:
1) Urgent preparation of all India seniority list of Supdts of Customs;
2) To establish the Supdt. of Customs (P) as a cadre, different from the cadre of Prev. Officers so as to combat the wrong stand of the CBEC misleading the Hon'ble CAT, Mumbai, High Court, Mumbai as well as the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the matters of our legitimate demand of increasing our promotional quota proportionate to our increased cadre strength;
3) Above all, the viability of constituting an exclusive organisation of the Supdts of Customs (P) emerged with the substantial increase in the number of Supdts of Customs (P).
I am glad that our points have now been proved.
The all India seniority list of the Supdts of Customs (P) could not be prepared for a long time, because, the dispute in the seniority of the younger Prev. Officers was deliberately brought into the picture by some persons of vested interest without caring for the fact that the earlier all India seniority list of the Supdts. of Customs had been exhausted and further promotion was not possible for want of seniority list. When we approached the Board for our seniority list, we were directed to prepare the draft list and send it on a floppy to the Board. We, by way of our enormous efforts, prepared and send the draft seniority list to the Board's office. Now it has been published by the Board. I thank all the associations and their office bearers and specially Shri R.K.Kar of Kolkata for accomplishing such a great job. It is further proved that the Supdts can only serve the interest of the Supdts better.
The long awaited recognition has now been granted by the Govt. of India to our Federation. It was a long persuasion for four years to satisfy the requirements for obtaining the recognition. I again thank all the members for co-operating during this long period. I wish to make special mention of Supdts. S/Shri K.M. Moeen and A.P.S. Dhillon, but for whose extra-ordinary efforts, the job could not have been done by now. They deserve our thanks. Our stand taken in the year 2000 as mentioned above in (i), (ii) and (iii) is thus vindicated and we have emerged as an important and distinct entity in this department.
It may be recalled that we had our last conference on the same day at the same port city of Mumbai in the year 2002. A question might arise as to why we did not have the conference in the year 2003? I wish to put forth the following ground realities during the period:
In a shocking and sad development, our Secretary General Shri V.B. Singh lost his father and brother within a very short span of time. In a shattered mental state he resigned from the post of the Secretary General out of frustration.
Our federation received a severe and unexpected blow at its childhood. However, we could slowly overcome the difficulties when I took-over the responsibility with the help of the remaining office-bearers of the Federation. The Vice-Presidents S/Shri Ashutosh Bala and S.P. Dudeja and the Joint Secretary Shri Peeyush Pandey deserve a special mention for their excellent support to me. During this period the going became further difficult with a telephone message from Shri Natatrajan of Chennai Custom House that the Supdts. of Chennai Custom House in a meeting decided to join the Preventive Service Association inspite of objections raised by Shri Rajan Babu, the elected President of the Association of Supdts of Customs, Chennai. However, the members from Mumbai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, and Kochi stood firm. I consulted the office-bearers of these ports for organising the conference during the year 2003 and I was advised to hold it till the recognition is granted to our Federation by the Govt. of India. Accordingly, the conference is organised now. Even at this early age of our Federation we have achieved many goals inspite of facing odds at different juncture. Our long fight, as an important constituent of the COC, has finally paid off and the Supdt’s pay scale has been increased from 6,500-200-10,000 to 7,500-250-12,000. Such an increase may not bring much financial benefits to our senior members but it definitely would fetch benefit for the younger Supdts. and our status among other comparable services would definitely be elevated.
We have also been able to get the benefits of ACP scheme to the eligible Supdts. by way of getting the up to date order issued through our sustained persuasion.
It may be borne always in mind that the issues relating to staff welfare takes long
time to reach its desired goal and therefore patient persuasion is the key to achievement. Before I conclude I wish to place on record the excellent services rendered by Shri A. Bandopadhaya of Kolkata, S/Shri B.V. Gangaraju, J.S. Mor and S. Raghu Ram all of Visakhapatnam, Shri S.A.S. Nawaz of Kochi and S/Shri R.S. Potdar, Dwarika Prasad and N.K. Singh all of Mumbai. I convey my sincere thanks to them. I would like to make a grateful mention of Shri S.K. Bhardwaj, Member, CBEC, Shri Sourabh Chandra, Joint Secretary (Admn) CBEC, Shri Angna Ram, Under Secretary (Ad II) CBEC and Smt. Indira Murthy, Under Secretary (Ad IV A), CBEC for their being kind and considerate to our issues.
I thank all the members of our Federation for their sincere co-operation during the journey.
With warm Regards,
ANUPAM MAJUMDAR
PRESIDENT