ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2006
(Kolkata, 18th & 19th January, 2006)
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
I welcome you all the delegates and guests of Kolkata at the third Annual Conference of our Federation. I wish you all a very happy new year.
As a President of our Federation and as a member of the customs family, I own a dual responsibility of looking into the welfare of our members in particular and safe guarding the interest of our customs department in general. Thus I wish to limit my discussion on these two important aspects.
In the days of liberalization, the procedure of customs clearance also have been liberalized resulting in the abolition of various conventional executive functioning. Such situation has created a feeling, among the members, of being jobless or under deployed. In addition, the severe stagnation caused due to an incorrect pattern of last cadre restructuring in CBEC has created a bottle neck at the entry point of Group-A. As a consequence the hollow promise of the then CBEC for effecting minimum three promotions in our service life has fallen flat. Today even the direct recruit Preventive Officer of 1974 batch are languishing at the post of Superintendent even after 32 years of service without any hope to get any more promotion in their life time. If we calculate the average number of promotion our cadre gets annually and look at the long length of the seniority list, we will easily understand that the Preventive Officers joining after 1980 will have to retire with a single promotion in their lifetime, unless a drastic change is done in the pattern of promotions and hierarchy. This situation has frustrated our cadre and severely demoralized us. Thus the two issues of adequate job opportunities and promotion prospects are to be looked into. I believe that there will be sufficient job opportunity in the new areas of operation for which we have to educate our self and abreast our self of the developments in the new direction.
We shall fail in our duties unless and until we address the issue of the "Public Perception" of Customs. It is a century old general Public Perception that al: custom officers are corrupt. At the same time, ever since independence, our Department did not consider enough serious thinking to improve upon the public image of Customs. Corruption has many ill effects, among which the huge loss of revenue due to corrupt practices and the damage in the public perception of our department are the two issues which needs to be addressed separately. A generalized approach to fight corruption has yielded very inadequate results and the ground realities have gone from bad to worse. We being the senior most cadre on the parameters of the average age and experience of the members of our cadre, we have to initiate a serious debate and find out the ways to proceed in the right direction. The task is very hard and preventive people are known for their strong characters to face any hard task fearlessly.
Finally, the strength of organisation is the only weapon with which any adversities can be fought. We, being a small segment of our Customs department have limited powers of bargain.
The strong our Federation is, the stronger will be our bargaining capacities. I invite all the Superintendent's of Customs to join hands with us, contribute everybody's mite, participate in the Federation functioning activities and above all think for the betterment of the cadre and our Department to bring out new ideas. I also request our seniors in the department to interact more with us, who form the bridge between the policy makers and the implementers. I also request the seniors to create a cheerful office atmosphere, which makes each officer more effective and productive.
I wish all the success for the Third Annual Conference and thank all our members who have worked for it. I particularly thank Superintendent Shri K. Bandyopadhyay of Mumbai for designing the cover page of this brochure & extending his invaluable support for getting this brochure printed. I also thank Kolkata Association & specially Shri Amitava Bandopadhaya for organising the Annual Conference at Kolkata. I also thank Mumbai Association & its General Secretary Shri Dwarika Prasad & President Shri R. S. Potdar for giVing all logistic support to run the Federation at Mumbai. It will remain inconclusive if I fail to mention the contributions had by Shri Atanu Choudhury in the Court Matters & I thank him.
It is the fresh blood which gives all organisation a new lease of life & thus I call upon the younger Superintendents to work for strengthening this Federation for paving a better future for them.
Thank you all
ANUPAM MAJUMDAR
(PRESIDENT)