Control Room Duty for Central Excise Inspectors
AN extract from DDT 1218 - 19.10.2009 :(This is the scenario in any Central Excise office housing a few Commissioners and Chief Commissioner.)
CONTROL ROOM
There is a Control Room situated on the ground floor. On one side facing entry towards the building, there is a window of the Control Room with the board "Reception". Whereas, on another wall inside the building, there is a board "Control Room". The Inspector posted in Control Room has to perform both duties, i.e. as a Receptionist and as a Control Room officer! There is round the clock posting of Inspectors in Control Room. Around One lakh rupees per month is being spent towards salary of the Inspectors posted at Control Room.
It was noticed that Inspectors posted at Control Room were not in uniform and spending time on telephone or talking with their colleagues. So a strict higher officer has issued several office orders regarding Control Room. Some of the salient features are as under:
++ Inspectors posted at Control Room must wear proper uniform and they have to give proper respect (i.e. salute) to their higher officers when they take entry or exit to/from the building. (There is large number of officers of higher cadres than the cadre of Inspector. However, it was verbally informed that Control Room Inspector should salute at least to the Chief Commissioner, Commissioners and Additional Commissioners. There is one Chief Commissioner, six Commissioners and twelve Additional/Joint Commissioners sitting in the building.) There was much protest from Inspectors because it is not always possible to immediately come out from the Control Room to give respect, i.e. salute, these officers. There may be other reasons also. However, finally it was decided that Control Room officer, can express their ‘respect' from inside the Control Room also!
++ Gate Pass for each and every visitor should be prepared by the Control Room officer himself.
++ A register containing particulars of the visitors has to be maintained.
++ The baggage of the visitors should be checked by the Sepoys posted at Guard duty under supervision of the Control Room officer.
Advocates appearing for the Hearings have expressed their protest against the system of taking Gate Pass by standing in queue with common men. Therefore, now there is a separate register for Advocates and they are not required to obtain Gate Pass.
For quite some time, Inspectors have been demanding that they should not be made to do the Control Room duties. Now the offices are full of Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners and Superintendents. There is hardly any Inspector around. But still three to four inspectors are posted every day for this control room duty. Their plea is that they are meant for better jobs and they are not qualified to do reception and security jobs, which could be handed over to private agencies.
On a representation from the Inspectors Association, the Hyderabad Chief Commissioner in a letter issued yesterday states,
Since our service is not just a security service, suddenly some technical/legal issue may come any time therefore the availability of Inspector round the clock is absolutely necessary particularly during the night times. Night duty Inspector is not just a security guard. He is an all-rounder and caretaker, advisor in the event of some untoward incident and can coordinate with the senior officers. Therefore Control Room duty cannot be avoided.
Since, during daytime PRO and other officers are available, the Control Room duty for Inspectors during day time is not warranted and therefore PRO /Sepoys can attend the Control Room duty work. The Night duty however should be continued exempting lady officers.
And the designation PRO is misleading; he is not there to assist the public - he is purely a private relations officer meant to attend to the needs of the bosses.