Letters to the Honorable Chief
Minister of West Bengal
-1.-
To
Smt. Mamata Banerjee,
Hon`ble Chief Minister,
Government of West Bengal,
Writers Buildings,
Kolkata- 700 001
Respected Madam,
First of
all, we take this opportunity to convey our heartfelt greetings to you on
becoming the Chief Minister of our state. All of us welcome this change and
salute the attitude of perseverance of yours.
Ours is the service, West Bengal Audit
& Accounts Service, is the only constituted state service specialized in
the field of Finance, Accounts and Audit. We also humbly like to avail of this
opportunity to inform you that ours is the largest Association of the officers
of West Bengal Audit & Accounts Service and like your kind self we also do
have a long history of struggle.
It all started way back in 1974 when
Government decided to merge Jr. and State tiers of WBCS and 7 other state
services as a matter of policy. Unfortunately, despite having the same logic
and rationale, Jr. Audit & Accounts Service was not merged with State Audit
& Accounts Service. Sri M.G.Kutty , then Finance Secretary , Govt. of W.B. sent a memo to the 2nd Pay Commission strongly recommended to
merge two tiers of the service into one as the two tiers bear the same work and
responsibility. But the matter did not materialize due hindrances created by
some heinous and subversive element within our service.
Then
we formed a new association of ours and started movements in our own way .We
left no stone unturned but the Government turned a deaf hear to it. We were
compelled to engage ourself into a legal battle and the matter went up to the
Supreme Court. In 1994 the apex court was pleased to direct that the
unification was the prerogative of the Government. Thereafter instead of giving
up, we continued our struggle to convince Government about the necessity of the
unification. At the same time the handful of officers of other Association
tried to play a spoilsport with the blessings of some political big wigs of the
earlier regime. Despite constant opposition unification order saw the light of
the day in March 2001 with prospective effect after a long battle of 23 years.
However most of the senior officers, who have fought the battle over the years,
remained deprived totally. Again we
started approaching the Government mentioning this fact of deprivation to
senior officers. After a
Contd……..
long and constant pursuasion, the Government
considered our demand and approved a order
in file in February, 2006 giving notional
effect w.e.f. 1.4.1981 keeping inter-se-seniority undisturbed. But the said
order was not officially issued due to stiff resistance by a few members of
Higher & State Audit & Accounts Service Association with the help of
their
political bosses of the erstwhile ruling party.
But we believed the fight for justice can be delayed and can never be denied.
At last on 23rd September 2009 all our efforts bore fruits partially
as the unification order was antedated to 1981 without awarding any seniority
and arrear. Despite the partial justice meted to us, we accepted to same with
humility. But the said rival Association changed their stance overnight and
filed three cases against the Government in the matter of unification and other
things. Though there are no stay orders from the court,
the Finance Department has not given the benefits to most of the officers even
after two years. Most
unfortunately, officers who have retired on superannuation since August 2010
are not getting pension and other pensionary benefits due to lackadaisical
attitude of the Finance Department.
In
this connection we would like to draw your kind attention to the fact these
particular set of 78 officers, who are engaged in the heinous activities
opposing any kind of development of our service, have already overdrawn a huge
amount of Government money by way of deliberate wrong fixation and Hon`ble WBAT
has already ordered to recover the said overdrawn money immediately upholding
the refixation order already issued by the Government. But unfortunately till
now the Finance Department is very much reluctant for giving due importance for
implementation of the said order in a motivated way to favour them through
extending the benefits beyond the petitioners. It may be mentioned that this
issue relates to leakage of crores of rupees from the Governments` exchequer.
Madam,
you can easily appreciate the fact if we have the real political blessing of
the erstwhile regime, we could have easily reached our goal in early 1981 with
full benefits and we could not have remain satisfied with this partial benefits
after nearly 30 years.
I
would in the above circumstances request your good self to kindly allow us a
few minutes time to apprise you on the above subject.
Thanking
you,
Yours faithfully,
Sd/- 10.6.2011
(N.K.Sarkhel)
General Secretary
(M)9831826488
-2.-
To,
Smt. Mamata
Banerjee,
Hon`ble Chief
Minister
to the Govt. of
West Bengal,
Writers Buildings,
Kolkata- 700 001
Respected Madam,
All
of us are well aware of the precarious condition of the state economy at this
very juncture. We as a responsible Association would like to put forward our
views on this issue before your kind self. We have also made submission before
Hon`ble Finance Minister Dr. Amit Mitra earlier in this regard. Our demands as
detailed below bears a close relationship with the well being of state economy
as such and proper utilization of West Bengal Audit & Accounts Service for
instilling stringent discipline in financial sector.
Madam, you can well appreciate that implementation of our
suggestion warrants a drastic overhauling and shake up of the total
administrative and bureaucratic set up of the state economy. We also seek a few
moments of your valuable time to apprise you of the standing significance of
our demands. We expect unlike the previous Government, your Government shall
render proper attention to our demands with a rational attitude. We also hope
that this will extend a helping hand towads good governance in the state
economy.
- Extension of the benefit of 3rd
Higher Scale under CAS to all eligible State Service Officers, who have
served 22 years service.
- Encadre the posts of Director of
Treasuries and Accounts, Director of DPPG, Director of Accounts
(Education) in our service.
- Creation of one post of Financial
Advisor in each department and that to be manned by the senior of our
service.
- Introduction of Double Entry System in
place of existing Single Entry System in Government Accounts.
- Separation with full set up of Treasury
establishment from district administration and brought it under the direct
control of DTA.
- All posts of Accounts Officers of
Finance Accounts Department and Addl. Pay & Accounts Officers of Pay
& Accounts Office to be encadred and manned by our service as we are
specialized in this regard.
- Inclusion of our officers in policy
matters and decisions.
Other
than these demands we also put forward our views in a separate enclosure.
Thanking
you,
Yours
sincerely,
(N.K.Sarkhel)
General
Secretary
2.
-3.-
To
Smt. Mamata Banerjee,
Hon`ble Chief Minister,
Government of West Bengal,
Writers Buildings,
Kolkata- 700 001
Sub:
Deprivation of Pensionary Benefits.
Respected Madam,
Most respectfully we beg
to draw your kind attention to the following facts for your sympathetic
consideration.
Some officers belonging to the
cadre of West Bengal Audit & Accounts Service, who retired on
superannuation in August, 2010 and afterwards after rendering satisfactory
service, are not getting any pensionary benefits till date. We would like to
mention here that a file concerning the release of pensionary benefits to 50
odd officers is lying with the Principal Secretary, Finance Department for
nearly a month. Earlier the file was initiated by the Finance Department in
pursuance of Hon`ble WBAT `s instruction. The file was moving from one section
to another for nearly six months for necessary approval and vetting of the Law
Cell and Pension Cell etc. After completing all the procedural paraphernalia
the said file was submitted before Ld. Legal Remembrancer and he vetted it.
Then the file has been submitted to the Principal Secretary, Finance Department
for his kind perusal.
It is unfortunate and painful to note that these retired officers have
been spending their days through acute financial hardships and mental agony.
Under the circumstances, we make a fervent appeal to you kind self to
give necessary instruction to the Principal Secretary, Finance Department to do
the needful at the earliest, so that the retired officers can live a decent and
tension -free retired life.
Thanking
you,
Yours sincerely,
(N.K.Sarkhel)
General Secretary
(M)9831826488
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