Dated 7th October
2020
Dear Comrades,
As planned the online CWC Meeting of AIRASA was held
via ZOOM on 26 th September 2020. As the President
Shri. Partha Bhattacharjee expressed his inability to participate in the
meeting due to his Mother’s health condition, and the Working President Shri. Damaraju Nageswara Rao already retired Shri. C.M. Chengappa, Vice President presided over the Meeting. Around 40
CWC members including twothirds of CEC members,
Permanent invitees and Founder members attended the meeting.
After the
retirement of Mr. Reji George on
28-02-2019 who was GS AIRASA, the 1st CWC has to be conducted ONLINE
due to COVID 19 Pandemic duly giving 16
days Notice to all members and Registrar of Trade Union. After presiding over
the meeting Shri Chengappa , Vice President, authorized Shri. Ashok Dwivedi, Additional General
Secretary to conduct the CWC
Meeting.
A Two-minute silence to mourn the death of
Accounts staff due to Covid 19 and other causes was observed.
Shri.
Joginder babbar, Additional General Secretary welcomed the participants.
-The
Agenda of the Meeting was
1. To
nominate a Central Office bearer to look after the duties of General Secretary
by President as per Constitution of AIRASA.
2. To
discuss the current position of all pending demands including
(i)
Entry Grade Pay 6th CPC 4200 for
JAA,
(ii)
Grade Pay 4600 for AA
(iii)
GP 4800 for
Sr.AA
(iv)
All SO/Sr.SO Grade Pay 5400 Completion on 4
years as per 7CPC recommendation.
(v)
Present Position of 5th CPC
Arears
(vi)
Change of Designation of Accounts Cadre.
3. To
discuss the proposed merger of departments, its implications and actions to be
taken by AIRASA.
4. Action
to be taken for conducting next BGM after Deepawali. Any other subject raised by the CWC Members.
Shri. Manoj
Shukla Dy.Gen Secretary AIRASA stated that in this pandemic period and
various restrictions on assembling and movement of people, ONLINE MEETINGS
alone are feasible. He also expressed the need to ensure connectivity and
continuity in our Association functioning, strictly in accordance with our
Association Constitution.
Shri.
Ramachandran K now AFA opined that we should work together for
AIRASA benefit and resolve our differences.
Shri.
V.S.Wathare , Central Org Secy
stated that Association should unite and all members should attended meeting.
Shri. K.C.
Tripathi of BBS suggested that
it is very important for any organization to work as per its constitution.
Shri. P.K.Negi
-Joint Secy observed that our
Association still needs to be strengthened and members should be increased by
reaching out to all staff, especially the new recruits in the last few years.
He also emphasized that all CEC members be aware regarding any activity and work with
constitution.
Shri.
D.P.Khuntia Jt Secy attended the
Meeting and had to leave before his turn to speak due to some domestic
emergency and said that he would be with
whatever decision CWC take with Majority opinion.
Mr. Jahangir
pasha Jt Secy attended the meeting
but could not continue for the entire session as he had to leave for Namaz .
Nonetheless, he also expressed that we
should work as per Constitution.
Shri. Tapan
Baishya, Secretary, Communications from CLW stressed that the demand for
higher payscales for ACs, JAAs and
Sr.AAs also should be taken up vigorously.
Participating in the discussion Mr. Alex Lobo of ADI, Western Railway said that the demand for
restoration of grant of incentive increments for passing ICWA takenup by former
GS after implementation of VI CPC in 2008 should be raised once again and he
also wanted that those who have qualified should be exempted from LDCE Exam for
Group B and should be promoted to Group B without Examinations. He suggested
that AIRASA should conduct online trainig classes on various new systems
introduced in Acccounts department including GST and Webinors on important
topics.
Other CWC members and
Invitees, S/Shri/Smt. S,B. Tiwari, Central Organising Secretary,
Saraswat Ji ,former President , Sunil JUC, Parmindar Ji NDLS, J.P.Maurya
Ajmer, K.C.Thripathy BBS, Sanjay Saxena
C.Rly. Mukesh Khare N.C.Railway, M.C.Shukla N.C.Railway, Ramchandra Ojha
W.C.Railway, Ekta Gupta ,R.K.Shandilya Ji ,Nanak Dev of RCF , Ashok Saini
-Patiala, Rakesh Pandey ,Vikram -N.Rly. Nirmesh Kumar N.W.R, Dilip Rathore ,
Vijai Saini ( N.W.R.), Shailendra Kumar, , M.N.Sudharsan ICF, L. VenkatatRamani
ICF, Ramesh Kumar former Working Presiden , Govindarajulu BZA , Shahzad Ahemad
ECR, O.P.Mishra RVNL CNB,-- spoke and expressed their view points. All
observed that it is very important to upgrade and equip ourselves with the changing
times not only in our office work and also in our Association functions and that for any Association to be
alive and vibrant, more participation and cooperative approach has to be
followed in all works of our Association and the office bearers should be in constant
touch with the cadre and ground reality has to be understood. The invitees also
highlighted that our Accounts Cadre is mainly to ensure observance of rules and
fiscal discipline in office and so it is all the more important for us to keep
aloft our values and principles. While fighting for our demands and exalted
status in all grades, we should always ensure that our Association works fully
within the confines of our Constitution setting model to other Associations.
All the members present stressed the need to clinch
all the pending demands through well chalked out programmes.
Shri
N.Srinivasan was requested to conclude the proceedings for the day. Shri. N.
Srinivasan appreciated the spirit of CEC members present to work as per Constitution
of AIRASA and joining the meeting online and commended the discussions held on
the pending demands, V CPC arrears and Merger of Accounts Sections with
Personnel department. He said the merger issue is very serious and its
implications should be made known to all Accounts staff as many of them are new
to the department and do not know the importance of independence, legacy and
importance of Accounts department in Railways.
Taking note of
the fact that the President ,Secretary, Finance and Retired General Secretary
could not attend the meeting owing to preoccupations, as suggested by N.
Srinivasan, Shri Chengappa , Vice
President announced extending the session
by holding online meeting one more time and request the President, GS (retired),
and Secy.Finance to attend the meeting. Accordingly the day’s session was wound
up without passing any resolution and scheduling the next session on 3.10.2020.
Extended
CWC On 03.10.2020 at 18.00 hrs.
Shri. Ashok
Dwivedi, AGS who was advised by the CWC on 26th September Meeting to
contact the President , the Secretary, Finance and former GS Mr.Reji George
said that he called the President Shri. Partha Bhattacharjee over phone and
conveyed the decision of CWC to request him to participate in the extended
Meeting and the President informed him that “Ok I will call you after
discussion with George and Secretary Finance Nirmal Mandal”. but he did not call back ,even Saraswat Ji
our Ex President and Permanent invitee has also called to President ,he ensured
but did not call back. Shri. Ashok
Dwivedi AGS phoned up to Mr. Reji George and Nirmal Mondal, Secretary Finance
but they did not pickup the call. AGS also reported that he made it a point to
call all the three daily but they did not respond. Public appeal on CWC Meeting
WhatsApp group and in other official AIRASA Groups requesting them to attend
the meeting or to give their convenient time and date did not yield any
positive result. Instead Shri. Reji George levelled different unfounded allegations
against AGS and former General Secretary Shri. N. Srinivasan with malicious
overtones and the same was supported by Shri. Surynarayana, Vice President and
some others. Both of them declined to Join the CWC meeting. President posted
Message that this is unauthorized CWC meeting because there is no provision to
hold the meeting online in our
Constitution. Many members also expressed that Constitution of no Association
would have specific mention about ONLINE Meeting and Meeting in any means Physical,
Telemode, Online shall not be in violation of our Constitution. After that AGS
called the President again on 02.10.2020 and requested him to attend the
Extended CWC Meeting. This time he told that he is suffering from fever and
throat infection and not able to join meeting on 03.10.2020.
The meeting started at 18.30 hrs on
03.10.2020 and in absence of President and Senior Vice-President Shri.
Chengappa who was held up in his native place, Shri. Ashish Das Vice
President presided over the extended CWC Meeting and he asked Shri. Ashok Dwivedi to AGS to Continue
the proceedings. In his speech Shri.
Ashis Das expressed his anguish that the issues pertaining to ACs, JAAs,
AAs are not being pursued vigorously and henceforth should be given equal
importance.
Smt. Arvinda
Kaur, Vice President started the deliberations and stated that with
guidance of our Founder Members we should work as per constitution and sort out
differences with EX GS and focus on our pending demands. She appreciated the
efforts taken to conduct the Meeting on line in view of the present day Covid
situation. Shri. Rakesh Gupata, Vice President stated that when our
Constitution does not allow retired person to be a member of the Association,
Mr. Reji George being a founder member shoul have followed the by law and resigned his post on the last
working day of his service and he should have supported the conduct of on line
meeting.
Shri.D.P.Khuntia, Central Organising Secretary stated that
whatever decision CWC will take with majority as per constitution should be
respected by one and all and work on the resolutions passed should be started
immediately without any delay and we should show our unity and solidarity for
the actions taken..
Shri.
M.L.Narayanan, Jt.Secreatary appreciated the initiative of on line meeting
and said we should work as per by laws duly amending the Constitution whenever
the situation demands in the BGMs and duly notifying the Registrar of Trade
Unions. He also desired continuous efforts on realising the pending demands.
Mr. Antony
Selvan, Dy.Gen Secy who was
discharged from the Hospital the previous day joined the meeting for a brief
time and extended his support.
Shri.
C.M.Chengappa, Vice President
(On the Way from his village), Mr.
Jahangir Pasha, Joint Secretary,(on the way to his native place) ,Shri. Dilip Tamuli, Vice President (who
is in Hospital) , Shri. Mani
Venkatachalam, Central Organising Secreatry ( was held up in traffic), C. Govind Raju, Joint Secretary (who
was on the way for urgent domestic need) telephonically contacted and said they
would fully agree with CWC decisions and
resolutions passed as per the constitution of AIRASA. Shri. Shailendra Kumar, former President, AIRASA stated in detail
the early history since starting of the Association advised that differences in
views, opinions and approaches are bound occur in any Organisation/Associations
but personality clashes should be avoided and that instead of fighting for any
post one should fight for betterment of Association. He also emphasised the need
for unity in our Association. He also said that personal level attack on the
former General Secretary should be condemned.
Shri.Velayudhan
former CEC founder Member and permanent invitee to CWC recalled the
glorious period of our past and the struggles we made in fighting for our
demands in NDLS. He expressed concern and pain on the recent developments. All the Members present felt that the President should remain neutral and think
over the future of the Association.
The members
present took strong exception to the absence of Shri. Nirmal Mondal, Secretary,
Finance and his leaving the CWC Meeting group without quoting reasons. The
meeting appealed to him to prepare and keep ready all financial statements for
the BGM and to present an abstract of current financial position before winding
up of this on line CWC meeting group.
All the members present uniformly opined that in the
given condition, conducting of physical BGM will neither be safe nor practical
and it will be appropriate to conduct the Meetings BGM or AGM or CWC only
through ON LINE. It was also deliberated that ONLINE MEETING would actually
benefit the Organisation through more participation by the members without any
need to physical travel and result in considerable savings financially. The members
also expressed the date for ONLINE BGM may be fixed well in advance preferably
after Pooja, Deepavali and Chaat festivals.
All
the above Office bearers, former CEC members and other invitees including Shri.
Sanjay Saxena C.Rly, Shri. Naval Gupata C.Rly, Shri. M.N.Sudarsan, Shri.
Saraswat Ji, Shri. Kamalesh Chaturvediji, Permanent invitees condemned the
abusive posts of Mr. Reji George in all whatsapp groups of AIRASA and also that
of Shri. P. Surya Narayan, Vice President and others about N. Srinivasan and
our Association. Though Shri. N. Srinivasan said that he has chosen to ignore
the post of personal attack and that all those who know the history of AIRASA
and the founder members and other respected Seniors in particular would as much
know his efforts well. He said that he would be happy to get along without
discussing such posts and instead concentrate on the functioning of our
Association and pursuing our long pending demands. But the members expressed
that the President Shri. Partha Bhattachrjee should have condemned post
immediately and should have advised Mr. Reji George to remove it. They
requested Shri. N. Srinivasan to
contribute his valuable suggestions for the development of AIRASA and in achieving
the pending demands.
They also appealed to the Admins of various WhatsApp
Groups in the name of AIRASA to advise their members not to encourage any such posts which not only
spoils organisational harmony but also sends wrong signals outside about our
Association and such posts are immediately removed duly alerting the person who
posted to be more judicious. It was also felt the presence of multiple WhatsApp
group with same members mostly is unwarranted and confusing. Further, such
groups and the discussions thereon provide fodder to other Associations and
Federations. Hence the groups other than AIRASA and AIRASA 258 should be
disbanded or may operate with new name without mentioning AIRASA.
The
following Resolutions were passed based on the discussions held on 26-09-2010
and 03-10-2020.
1. President
should nominate a CEC Member to look after the duties of General Secretary till
the new General Secretary is elected in the next BGM. The President shall do so
within five days from the receipt of this draft Minutes on his personal
WhatsApp and E mail.
2. This
Meeting urges the Hon’ble Minister of Railways and CEO, Railways to stop
merging some of the sections of Accounts department with Personnel branch as
this move will hamper the independence of Accounts functions and will disturb
the parity with other Accounts and Audit departments of Central Government as
Railway Accounts is part of Organised Audit and Accounts departments of Central
Government as established by all the Pay Commissions.
3. This
Meeting appeals to the Hon’ble Minister of Railways to implement the Apex
court’s verdict allowing payment of V CPC arrears of Pay from 1-1-96 to 18-02-2003 to all
eligible accounts employees.
4. This
Meeting reiterates the long pending demand of grant of next higher level of Pay
available for ACCOUNTS CLERKS, JAAs ( On
par with ASMs), AAs, ASVs, Sr. ASVs, STENOGRAPHERS, TYPISTS, FPEs AND CASH
& PAY
STAFF. The Staff on level 2 should be promoted level
3 as Accouns Clerks on seniority basis.
5. This
Meeting resolves to stick to the demand of restoring the percentage of posts of
Sr. AA as 5% of the strength of Sr. SO(A)s
on par with other organised Audit and Accounts departments of Government
of India.
6. The
II financial upgradation under MACP should be extended to all CG II promotees
treating their promotion as JAA on passing Appendix IIA as Direct Recruitment.
7. This
Meeting appeals to Hon’ble Minister of Railways to expedite the implementation
of Grant of Grade Pay of Rs.5400/- on completion of 4 years of service in Grade
Pay 4800/- to all Sr.SO(A)s/Sr.TIAs/Sr.ISAs as recommended
by Seventh CPC which has been implemented for all
other organised Accounts and Audit departments of Government of India.
8. This
Meeting requests Hon’ble Minister of Railways to extend Group ‘B’ Status to all
Sr.SO(A)s/Sr.TIAs/ Sr.ISAs and abolish 70% and 30% selection to the post of AFA
as recommended by Parliamentary Petition Committee in 2011.
9. This
Meeting reiterates the demand to implement the modified ACP duly allowing the
next grade Pay as per the next hierarchy in the Accounts department.
10. This
meeting demands the restoration of grant of three Additional increments to ASVs
for passing App.IV Exam and increase the percentage of Sr.ASVs as 80%.
11. This
request the restoration of Qualification
increments in lieu of Qualification Allowance for passing App.II & III
Examinations, ICWAI, MBA (Finance) duly including it as ‘PAY’ for all purposes.
12. The
Meeting decided to persist with demand for change designations of Accounts
cadre on par with other Organised Audit and Accounts departments pending for
the last 15 years.
13. It
was also decided to request the Railway Board to organise online Training
Sessions on subjects like GST etc., repeatedly for the benefit of staff dealing
with the same.
14. The
CWC members also discussed the dates for BGM and decided to hold the same on 12th
& 13th December 2020 via online ZOOM Meeting.
Preparatory
work for the 10th BGM to be held online on 12 & 13th December
2020
This will be
the first BGM to be held on line. Though it may be disappointing that we are
not able to meet in person, it throws huge opportunity for the participation
from all over the country. Yes. Representatives from each and every Accounts
Office can participate from their home. It needs lot of preparation since the connect
with divisions/units is lost for the last several years. Many of the old office
bearers from Zones/divisions have retired and most of the
Zonal/Divisional/Production Unit level branches have become defunct. Many of
the Bank Accounts have become inoperative and some have been blocked. So we
have to start reorganising from Divisional/Unit level. All available former and
present Office bearers from all levels should contact the nearby Units and try
to restore the branch of AIRASA. Initially a WhatsApp group for each Unit can
be created and one of the AGS of central body may be included in the same who
will provide the latest information including the minutes of this CWC Meeting
in the group and motivate them to participate in the online BGM. Similarly
Zonal bodies should be restored after this. As time is short quick and
immediate action is requested from every one. All the Central Office bearers
shall take this responsibility and do their best. Both the AGSs will monitor
and help them in this regard.
Shri. Joginder
babbar, Addl. General Secretary proposed the vote of thanks and offered all
help to arrange meeting with Hon’ble Minister of Railways.
Yours comradely,
(ASHOK
DWIVEDI)
Addl. General Secretary
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