Com
Prabodh S, President, AICEIA Kerala Circle & Com Visakh D,
Thiruvananthapuram Unit Secretary met Shri Vinod Kumar, Chief
Commissioner in Thiruvananthapuram during his visit to
Thiruvananthapuram Commissionerate. The following issues affecting
the cadre of Inspectors were discussed with the Chief Commissioner,
- The issue of cadre controlling authority.
In
light of the CBEC instruction mandating that the cadre controlling
function is to be exercised by the Chief Commissioners office and not
by any subordinate Commissioner, we requested that the instruction of
CBEC be implemented, as the members of the Association are facing
hardship over having the cadre controlling being executed by
subordinate Commissioner. The Chief Commissioner though agreed in
principle to this point, informed that he is holding additional
charge of the Zone. We handed over our representation to the Chief
Commissioner on this regard. We also informed him of instances of
victimisation of office bearers and that administration is not
replying to the representation on these issues though 6 months have
passed.
- Filling up of vacancy of Tax Assistants
We
informed the Chief Commissioner of the long pendency of the claims
submitted by officers and Inspectors forced to work in administration
due to lack of sufficient Ministerial cadre officers. We also
apprised him that the administration is at fault by not properly
reporting the vacancy, the evidence of which is there in the vacancy
position reported from this Zone (available in the CBEC website). The
Chief Commissioner informed that since the vacancy cannot be revised,
necessary steps would be taken to ensure properly reporting the
vacancy for forthcoming years. The Association also demanded that
enquiry be initiated to find the reasons for such under reporting and
also informed him that excess reporting of vacancies for the year
2012 cannot be considered as a reason for not reporting the vacancies
subsequently. We also requested that compassionate appointment be
considered to fill up the Group C vacancies.
- Vacancies in the cadre of Inspector.
The
issue of vacancies in Inspector cadre was brought to notice of the
Chief Commissioner. We informed him that the vacancies in Kerala Zone
are due to non availability of sufficient Ministerial cadre officers
to fill up the promotion quota and not due to cadre restructuring or
Inter Zonal Transfers. We also presented the necessary statistics to
this effect. In light of the CBEC requesting proposals for one time
relaxation in the RR, we requested that the promote quota may be
considered for direct recruitment as an one time measure to fill the
vacancies. We had categorically also stated that , only those
vacancies ought to be considered after protecting the interests of
the present ministerial cadre officers. The Chief Commissioner
requested us to take up this issue with the Ministry and all India
perspective of the issue is also to be considered.
- Inter Zonal Transfer.
The
issue of Inter Zonal transfer was brought to the notice as well. We
informed him that the administration should not turn a blind eye to
the suffering of the many members and that the huge pendency in the
IZT application is because the administration failed to consider the
transfer request on a phased manner. The apprehensions shared by the
Chief Commissioner were, 1. Grievance of people who cannot be
considered for IZT at the first instance 2. Staff shortage that would
arise & 3. Whether there would be further court cases. To these
issues the Association has replied that there can be a suitable
policy adopted based on which process can be initiated. The vacancy
in cadre of Inspectors is due to promotional quota and not due to
Cadre restructuring like in other Zones and due to Inter Zonal
Transfer. Whatever vacancies that would be caused by IZT would be
filled up by CGL examination as evidenced from the experience of last
few years. Moreover even if the process gets initiated, it would take
sometime before the actual transfer order is issued. We assured that
the members would not be approaching the CAT, as we ourselves are
aware that this would be against the interest of the members.
The
meeting lasted for nearly an hour. We thanked the Chief Commissioner
for giving us ample time to discuss these issues. Though Chief
Commissioner has stopped short of giving any assurance on most of the
issues, we hope that necessary actions would be taken.
