ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE
GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
President:
Address for communication:
Secretary General:
R. Chandramouli 240, Razapur,
Ghaziabad-201001 (U.P.)
Ravi Malik
Vice Presidents: P. Parwani,
L. L. Singhvi (Central); Anurag Chaudhary, Ravi Joshi (North); N. Raman, G.
Srinath (South); B. K. Sinha, Ashwini Majhi (East); Rajesh Chaher, J. D. Patil
(West) Joint
Secretaries: Anand Kishore, J. S. Aiyer (Central); R. K. Solanki, Ashish
Vajpeyi (North); M. Nagaraju, Ajithkumar P. C. (South); P. K. Sen, S.
Bhattachariya (East); Jasram Meena, M. K. Mishra (West) Office Secretary: C. S. Sharma
Treasurer: N. R. Manda Liaison Secretary: A. S. Kundu Coordinator on Telangana: P. Shravan Kumar
(Recognised by G.O.I., Min. of
Fin. vide letter F.No. B. 12017/10/2006-Ad.IV A Dt.21.01.08)
Ref. No. 220/BA/14
Dt. 04.12.14
To,
Sh. K. Srivastava,
The Chairman, CBEC,
North Block, New Delhi.
Sub: Introduction of Biometric attendance system.
Sir,
As
already known to your goodself, it is submitted with due regards that the
biometric attendance system is going to be started in the offices of the Govt.
of India.
2.
The system of recording attendance & watching the
punctuality of government servants is in vogue from a date prior to the
independence and its efficacy was never questioned by the Administrative
Reforms Commissions/Committees or any of the Central Pay Commissions. The
administrations of Government departments have been most effectively
maintaining the punctuality & discipline in the offices for the last seven
decades by using the relevant register. The new decision of enforcing attendance
by biometric system seems derogatory to the dignity of the employees &
officers of Central Government establishments. The electronic & print media
are using this internal administrative decision of the Central Government as an
instrument to malign the image of these officials.
3. The new system
seems only the pointing of fingers towards the integrity of the employees &
officers of Central Government. Before taking such decision, the Government did
not bring the fact of deterioration in the position of attendance &
punctuality (if any) before the National Council of JCM justifying the
requirement to replace the existing system. As per the Government of India,
DOPT OM No. 3/42/87-JCA dt. 28.01.88 read with clause 8 (jurisdiction &
functions) of JCM scheme, the staff side is to be consulted before introduction
of any new technology.
4. As
far as the officers working in the field formations of CBEC are concerned, it
is submitted that these officers are performing executive duties. They are also
performing protocol duties. Such duties involve no fixed time & hours and,
as a result, they have always to work for extra hours as compared to the fixed
working hours. They have even to work regularly for many days & nights in
the event of the detection of any case. They have to work for extra hours at
airports, for anti-evasion & preventive work, for intelligence &
investigation work, for audit work, for survey work, for revenue mobilization
work to achieve revenue target, for budget related work, for patrolling work,
for export work, for search & seizure, for arresting the offenders, for
service of show cause notices, for inquiry work, for recovery of arrears, for
attachment of property, for market inquiry, for court matters, for service of
warrants & notices, for raids, to assist CBI & DRI, for various
verifications and for every field-related work. Being uniformed officers,
practically no work of them is confined to fixed hours like Police personnel.
As the Association came to know, Delhi Police authorities have already written
not to implement any such measure for their personnel.
5. Our officers are doing executive
work performing the field duties without prescription of any time limit for
working hours. They regularly work for late hours and also come to work in
early hours whenever required. As far as the working hours are concerned, they
have always been working more than the prescribed hours. They also work
regularly on holidays at the time of revenue drive and always collect the
revenue far ahead of the set targets without being paid any extra wages/incentive.
6.
It will be great injustice, if the biometric attendance is forced on them. This
will not only demoralize them but also affect very adversely the Govt. revenue.
They are already facing the worst working conditions, worst career prospects,
worst pay matters and many other worst things having nothing to be motivated
& job-satisfied. If the higher authorities want to ascertain their
presence, the official procedure is to make occasional checks in person. It is
also well pertinent to submit that they are also forced to maintain the XT-I
diaries in addition to the attendance register. As per the Tobacco Excise
Manual, they are supposed only to maintain the XT-I diaries instead of putting
any attendance in the register or machine. It is another thing that the Tobacco
Excise Manual has already become obsolete but no statutory change has been made
to replace the existing system with the biometric attendance.
7. No need to submit that the Association stands
for strict implementation of punctuality, discipline & work culture in all
Central Govt. offices and extends its full support & co-operation to
maintain the same. But the measures like biometric
attendance are only used to monitor the attendance for routine work of labour class
where the working hours are quite fixed and followed strictly. It is no way
justified to impose such measures for the executive officers who have already
been working for the Government for more than the prescribed hours performing
the field duties. Instead of it, infrastructure &
communication system in all cities of the country should be increased and
pick-up points be introduced for the employees & officers to enable them to
report for duty in time as inability to reach the offices may be for different
reasons viz VIP movement, traffic hazards, lack of basic
infrastructure/amenities etc.
8.
Moreover, our organization is a practical organization where the things are
always managed in the interest of the revenue & Government work in
executive manner. If work to rule or limited/fixed working hours system is imposed
on the officers adopting the measures like biometric attendance, the revenue
collection system will collapse. The distance between
residence and office especially for the employees working in metros is too far
making it very difficult to maintain such strict timings as the flow of traffic
in the metros & urban areas is very unpredictable. Moreover, work to be
done is important and not the strictness in timings. Introduction of such a
strict rule will bring lots of inconveniences to the officers and will make happy only to the biometric machine
manufacturers. If we have to be strictly on time for office, we shall have also
to leave for home strictly on time by which Govt. work as well as revenue will
suffer. If the Government implements
the strict timings, sufficient numbers of quarters are also required to be
built nearby the offices enabling the Govt. servants to feel that they are not
harshly ill-treated.
9.
In view of the above, it is requested that no measures like biometric
attendance may kindly be introduced for our officers particularly keeping in
view the protocol & other such type of duties being performed by them having
no fixed hours. It is very necessary in the interest of the organization as
well as the Govt. revenue & official work. These facts may kindly be placed
before the concerned higher authorities including the Finance Minister as well
as Prime Minister as done by Delhi Police.
Thanking
you,
Yours faithfully,
(RAVI MALIK),
General
Secretary.
Copy with
the request of necessary action to:
1)
The Prime Minister of India, South Block, New Delhi.
2)
The Finance Minister, Union of India, North Block, New Delhi.
3)
The MOS, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi.
4)
The Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India, President House, New Delhi.
5)
The Secretary, Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi.
(RAVI
MALIK)
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