Thursday, November 6, 2008

jca circular letter. on intensification of agitation

JOINT COUNCIL OF ACTION

Income tax Employees Federation and

 Income tax Gazetted Officers Association

Manishinath Bhawan, A/2/95, Rajouri Garden,New Delhi-110  027

  Ph No 2510 5324, 98110 48303, 98695 04653

 

M/12/2008

Dated: 5th October, 2008.

 

 

Dear Comrade,

Review of  ongoing agitational Programme

 

The central JCA met on 2nd November 2008(instead of 3rd November 2008) to review the ongoing programme of action. Taking into account the fact that the Board has not responded the JCA decided to adopt the enclosed resolution and forward the same to the Chairman. The resolution was sent to him by fax on 4th November.2008.

 

RESOLUTION

 

The Central JCA which met at New Delhi on 2nd November 2008, to review the  response of the Board to the representations made by it to settle the charter of demands came to the conclusion that the Board has not made any attempt to negotiate and settle issues. The meeting also noted with dismay that the despite the notification issued by the Govt on 29.8.2008 in respect of Inspectors, AO Grade III, PS and DPA Group B the Grade Pay has not been raised to Rs.4600. The meeting took serious note of the fact that while passing the order no 141, promoting ITOs as ACsIT the agreed understanding of retaining the promotee officers in the same station whose children are studying in 10th and 12th Standard, working spouse ground and to post them as per the options exercised by them has not been followed. It is surprising that a new concept of obtaining vigilance clearance before allowing officers to assume charge as ACIT has been introduced without any valid reasoning.

 

 

          The meeting therefore  has decided to intensify the agitational programme in the following manner in the face of the stubborn attitude of the Board:

 

1.                The members of the JCA will continue to abide by the earlier decision on agitational programme.

 

2.                Members of JCA will not organize or participate in search and seizure action  u/s 132 and Survey u/s 133A.

 

3.                In case the demands are not settled including the modification of transfer orders and upgradation of Grade pay of Inspectors, AO Grade III, PS and DPA Group B immediately, the JCA will be constrained to call upon its members to organize a strike action besides continuing the ongoing agitational programmes.

         

   Sd/-

New Delhi                                         (B. Shanthi Kumar)

                     02-11-2008                                          President

 

The central JCA, while reviewing  the  programme of action also  came to the conclusion that the agitational course has not been followed properly in many charges. There had been little mobilization of the members to enlist their active participation except in a few states. Since this being not a demonstrative programme, a sustained monitoring at all levels alone will make it effective. There had been all-round failure including at the level of central JCA itself.  The need for an intensive campaign has been felt and it has been decided that the central leaders of the two Federations will chalk out tour programme to visit all the State capitals in order to remove any laxity/difficulty in enlisting the participation of all members and to make a compelling situation for the Board to negotiate and settle the demands.

 

The Central JCA also took note of the sudden cancellation of the meeting, the Chairman convened to be held at Mumbai on 27th. While noting that the order of promotion of ITOs to ACs has been finally released on 27th, it has created in its trail insurmountable difficulties due to the  stipulation of a last minute vigilance clearance before they are allowed to assume charge as ACIT, with the result, the order of promotion remained only as a pious indication. This apart the officers  were transferred disregarding even the Choice of place they were asked to opt, and no consideration was given to the request for the retention on the ground that their children are in X and XII standard, a ground  which was considered good enough to give retention when  promotion and posting Orders where made last year.

The meeting also noted that except making assurances, no order has been passed by the Board in extending the provision of mobile phones to the Group C and D employees out of the infrastructure fund. The Department has reached an agreement to provide laptops to all officers with a total cost exceeding Rs. 56 crores whereas only 10 crores had been sanctioned out of the 196 crores for this purpose. Even a simple proposition of amending the R/R of Group D employees, the meeting noted, with regret, has not been able to get settled. In spite of the Supreme Court directive to regularize the Casual workers who have completed 10 years of service,  the IT department  is still to carryout the same. Similarly orders issued by the supreme Court on a special leave petition filed by the Board against the High Court decision in the matter of inter se seniority are still awaiting implementation.  The benefit of the said decision has not been extended even in the case of petitioners. The recalcitrant attitude of the Board naturally compelled the JCA to take recourse to intensification of the ongoing agitation and adoption of the enclosed resolution.

The central JCA also took note of the inordinate delay on the part of the Board in getting the approval of the department of expenditure for the up-gradation of the Grade Pay of Inspectors, Private Secretaries, Admn. Officers and DPA Grade B and ADI (OL) it felt that any further delay in the matter will have far reaching consequence and decided to suggest to the Constituent Organization to explore possibilities of organizing a strike action and if found feasible present the same suggestions before the meeting of the Revenue COC which is scheduled to be held on 13th for their adoption.

We request that extensive campaign must be under-taken to intensify the agitation programme as under :

(i) The State level leaders will chalk out tour programme to the units to be addressed jointly to enlist the Participation of all members in the ongoing agitation.

(ii) The Central JCA will chalk out tour programe to cover all states and shall communicate the same to the all the units with in a week's time.

Programme of Agitation

(i)                Ensure that no statistical returns / reports are either prepared or sent to the Board and no co-operation in this regard is extended to the Department in any manner officially or un-officially.

(ii)              Non Co-operation in Survey operations u/s. 133A including TDS Survey / inspection / verification / study.

(iii)            Demonstration on the first visit of any Board Member and/or Chairman, in the IT Offices across the country.

(iv)            Non Co-operation in Search & Seizure action u/s. 132 and Survey u/s. 133A conducted by the Investigation wing.

Proposed Strike Action

Central JCA, in active consultation with its constituent organization i.e ITEF and ITGOA will take the final decision to organize a strike action, if the Grade Pay in the cases of Inspectors, Admn. Officers, Private Secretaries, DPA etc. is not raised to Rs. 4600/- and issues from the 13 point charter of demands including the amendment to the transfers of Assistant Commissioners are not satisfactorily settled.

 

With greetings,

 

Yours fraternally,

 

K.K.N. Kutty.& Rajesh Menon.

Joint Convenors.