MINUTES OF CWC MEETING HELD AT NEWDELHI 0N 15-07-2011

Dated 31st August’ 2011
Dear Comrades,

Accepting the request of the Central Committee to host the CWC Meeting at New Delhi, S/Sri. Ramesh kumar and Jogindar Babbar with the help of Office Bearers of AIRASA, Traffic Accounts, N Railway had made excellent arrangements for the smooth conduct of the CWC Meeting ON 15-07-2011 at Baraat Ghar in Railway Colony.
Sri. Ramesh Kumar, Secretary, Communications welcomed the delegates. The Meeting started with paying homage to Sri. P.M Balai, CWC Member and Sri. Mohanraj, Jt. Secretary, South Zone on their untimely demise. Sri. R.K. Saraswat, President, AIRASA presided over the Meeting and outlined the agenda of the Meeting and narrated the current position of the demands and the outcome of the detailed discussions had by the team of Central Office bearers led by him on 13th &14th July with Railway Board Officials on all the pending demands.
Sri. N. Srinivasan, General Secretary outlined the activities of Central office since the BGM held at Nagpur in November 2010. While giving the details of discussions with Railway Board Officials he said
1. that Railway Board has replied to the letter received from DOPT to point out the anomalies that has arisen out of grant of MACP which included the Supervisors drawing less than the supervised, promotion in the same grade pay etc., and a decision or reply from DOPT is expected soon.
2. Regarding calculation of 5% unqualified quota i.e Sr.AA posts in the combined strength of SO(A)s and Sr.SO(A)s, the PC Directorate is in favour and the Accounts Directorate is refusing to understand the genuine arguments put forth by the Association including the need for maintaining parity with other Organised Accounts and Audit departments. Matter is being pursued further.
3. As regards the improved Grade Pays for various Cadre EDPC took the details of our demand for Grade Pay of Rs.4200/- for JAAs and assured to pursue the same. The team argued that the demand is based on VI PC Report ( Chapter 7 & 3) and that the diploma engineers have been granted Rs.4200/- whereas the First Class Graduate JAAs are given only Rs.2800/-
4. The following issues were also raised during the discussions and reminders were submitted.
a. the demand for promotion of erstwhile Group D Staff now in Group C Status on seniority basis to the post of Accounts Clerk.
b. Change of designations on par with the Organised Accounts and Audit departments.
c. Reintroduction of Grant of increments for passing App. IIA, App.IIIA and IV Examinations.
d. Modification of Recruitment Rules for selection to the post of AAOs and submitted the copies of Recruitment Rules of other Organised Accounts and Audit which contains selection by seniority cum suitability only.
e. the issue of TIA/ISA group App III passed candidates waiting for promotion for more than 15 years.
f. the need for extending the Special Allowance to those ASVs who came from the Cadre of JAAs and granting of MACP to Stock Verifiers duly taking their combined service in AA and ASV cadre and requested for issue of clarifications in this regard.

Regarding Cadre Restructuring in Accounts department, he said that the following proposals have been placed before Rly Board.

a. To mitigate the grievance of Accounts Clerks stagnated in the cadre for want of vacancies in JAA cadre, AIRASA requested for change in the 80 : 20 pattern as 20 : 80 since there are no direct recruitments being made.
b. Similarly the ratio of ASVs : Sr. ASVs may be modified from the present 65 : 35 to 20 : 80 as large number of posts are in work charged posts under Sales Organisation which varies from year to year. At present virtually only 10 % are in Sr.ASV cadre.
c. The Sr.AAs cadre should be raised to 10% of merged strength of Section Officers on par with other Organized Audit and Accounts depts.

As for Group B Status to Senior Supervisors he said that the matter has been taken up through the Petitions Committee of Parliament Which is under process of obtaining the evidence from the Officers of Railway board at Bhubaneshwar in the second week of September 2011.

In the discussion that followed the following Central Office Bearers and CWC Members present participated. Smt. Ekta Gupta, WC Railway, S/Shri. Ashok Dwivedi, Nanoma, and Sudhakar of Western Rly, Rakesh Guptha of Northern Railway, Shajad Ahmad of EC Rly, Partha Bhattacharjee and Suryanarayana Rao of S E Rly, Ashish das of E. Rly, Kamaleshwar Chaturvedi of N E Railway, Somchand Bhringraj and B.K. Panda of S E C Rly. The achievement of AIRASA, Jullundhar Unit in arranging the payment of revision of Election duty honorarium to the tune of Rs.2.88 lakhs was appreciated by one and all. The highlights of the points observed in the Meeting included the following.

1. Lack of interest from the cadre in participation of activities of AIRASA was deplored and stress was made in strengthening of the Organisation in all the Railways particularly in places where there has been no activities at all. All Central Office bearers in the nearby areas were requested to help in mobilizing the support.
2. Zonal / Divisional Committees of AIRASA shall be reorganized and local issues of the members shall also be taken up with the Administration based on the merits of the case.
3. CWC Meetings/AGM/BGM should be organized in new places where Meetings have not taken place so far.
4. Demands / grievances taken up by the Central Office shall be popularized among the members by carrying the message person to person with due emphasis on the demands of ACs, JAAs and AAs being pursued by AIRASA.
5. The fight for Entry Grade Pay of Rs.4200/- for Accounts department (as being raised by technical cadres and Station Masters) should be taken serious and followed up.
6. The waiting period of 3 years for promotion to the next higher Grade in Accounts department should be revised as 2 years as implemented for other executive departments.

The General Secretary’s request to relieve him of the post in view of his domestic situation was debated without arriving at a solution.

Mr. Reji George, Secretary, Finance detailed the present financial position of the Association and said that no Unit/Zone has remitted the membership dues since the last BGM held at Nagpur in Nov’2010 and said that with the meager balance available it will be difficult to carry on the activities of the Association and urged the members present to take the matter serious and arrange for immediate remittance of the central portion of the membership collection.

Shri. Jogindar babbar proposed vote of thanks.

The CWC Meeting at NEW DELHI will be remembered not only for the detailed discussions and exchange of ideas but also for the hospitality shown by the volunteers of AIRASA, Northern Railway including S/Shri. Ramesh Kumar, Jogindar babbar, R.C. Khurana, J.K. Ahuja, Raj Kumar, Jai Prakash, O.P. Tiwari, Balvindu, Sunil Kumar, Rakesh Guptha , Ram Gopal Singh and Subash Chandra Marwal.

The delay in preparing this communication is deeply regretted.

Yours faithfully,

(N.SRINIVASAN)
GENERAL SECRETARY