Chief Commissioners on Rampage - The 'Gifted' Officer?
CERTAIN events in the recent past project a very bad image of some of the Chief Commissioners in the Customs and Central Excise Department. The Chief Commissioner is the highest officer of the Department - in the field and is expected to be a role model for his staff and the trade. Even if they cannot be role models, they should certainly not be embarrassment to their staff, the Board and the Government of India.
We get reports that recently a Chief Commissioner asked a Superintendent in an ICD to arrange a payment of Rs. 2.5 lakhs per month to him. It seems the Superintendent requested the Board for a clarification on how he should go about arranging this money!.
In another case, a Deputy Commissioner went and asked a Chief Commissioner for a field posting and there was an altercation (obviously about ...), and the sixty year old Chief Commissioner caught hold of the Deputy Commissioner by his collar and lifted him up. In the process, the Chief Commissioner broke his (own) collar bone and both the Deputy Commissioner and the Chief Commissioner landed up in a hospital. Apparently the exalted Chief Commissioner had a very high (obviously wrong) opinion about his physical strength - even at sixty!
In yet another case, a Chief Commissioner after returning from a tour wrote to the jurisdictional Commissioner that it was the general practice that when the Chief Commissioner visits, he is given a gift, but this gifted Chief Commissioner complained that he did not yet receive any gift.
The best is yet to come!
Recently a Chief Commissioner was transferred and a Commissioner working under him was promoted as Chief Commissioner and posted in his place. The Chief Commissioner did not like his posting and asked the promoted Chief Commissioner not to join for some time. The Chief Commissioner then proceeded to try his luck in getting his transfer order cancelled. Not being lucky, he tried CAT where also he was not successful. In the meantime the promoted Chief Commissioner, under instructions from the Board, came to join in his new office but found the office locked. But with the help of an Inspector and a Commissioner, he got the room opened and occupied it only to be thrown out by the previous/existing Chief Commissioner the next day.
The transferred Chief Commissioner is still continuing as the Chief Commissioner and clearing files merrily while the real Chief Commissioner is sitting in some other room with no work. The (not so) gifted Chief Commissioner has promised that he would spoil the confidential reports of the Commissioner who succeeded him as Chief Commissioner and the Commissioner who helped in getting his room opened!
What respect will the Sepoys of the Department give to these Chief Commissioners?