NACEN to be shifted to Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh - Delhi officers not very happy
AN innocent Statement in the Finance Minister's Budget Speech has created quite a stir.
Para 172 of the Budget speech reads as:
Academy for Customs
172. It is proposed to set up the National Academy for Customs & Excise at Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh.
The regional Press in Andhra Pradesh has gone to town with the news as if it is a great gift to the people of Andhra Pradesh.
But some IRS officers who want to work in Delhi are upset - for them the news has come as a bolt from the blue.
National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN) is recognized as one of the best Customs and Narcotics training institutions in the world - but with woefully inadequate facilities.
NACEN is perhaps the only National Academy with no jogging track, no parade grounds and no basic facilities to train the officers who pass through the toughest examination in the world and who would run the Department for the next 30 years.
NACEN is considered a Delhi posting by many officers and even the officers working in NACEN, Faridabad commute from Delhi, converting it into a tutorial college, not a residential academy. In fact most of the probationers do not know what to do with themselves from Friday evening to Monday morning. Now they are scared that some of them have to go to remote Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. An IRS officer remarked, "our officers have the habit of complaining if asked to work 10 km away from home."
The IRS Association President Metta Rama Rao seems to be excited about the project - he says he and his association have been campaigning for a better academy - more space, more people, more funds etc,. He says that the Academy is meant to transform an intelligent graduate in to an officer and a gentleman (lady). It should provide space for the needs of Body, Mind and Soul.
The Academy needs firing range, cross country track, green zones, colony, medical unit, water bodies, guest houses, etc - and NACEN has none.
The proposal to have a large amount of land for NACEN came up for serious consideration last year and the then MoS JD Seelam had promised to provide 200 acres of land near Vijayawada in AP, but it seems the then Chairperson of CBEC was not in favour of shifting NACEN from Faridabad to Vijayawada.
This year about 250 probationers will be joining NACEN and there is no way that NACEN, Faridabad can accommodate such a large number of probationers.
It seems the present MoS Nirmala Sitharaman who got elected to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh recently persuaded the AP Government to provide land and the AP Chief Minister readily obliged giving 300 acres of land. The Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh in a letter dated 23.6.2014, to the ADG, NACEN, Faridabad informed him that the Government of Andhra Pradesh proposes that the new campus of NACEN may be set up at Hindupur instead of Vijayawada and the State Government has consented to allot 300 acres of land for NACEN. And the Finance Minister included it in his Budget speech. That is how the sentence found place in the Budget Speech.
Hindupur is a small town in Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh near the Karnataka border. The Bangalore airport is only 60 kms away from Hindupur. If the National Academy of Administration can be in Mussorie, the Police Academy at Hyderabad, the Direct Taxes Academy at Nagpur, why can't the Customs Academy be at Hindupur?
We may hope that a modern self sufficient academy will come up in Hindupur soon - though no budget allocation is made for it in this year's budget. Maybe it is not required as they would get land free or at a very low cost - so little or no funds are required this year.
Incidentally the budget allocation for the National Academy of Administration this year is more than Rs. 200 Crores and the Centre is to spend about Rs. 350 Crores on Police training - and what NACEN gets is 79 Crores!