The letter written by the Circle Secretary to Sri S Sarkar, Chief PMG on 12.05.2008 (sent to Kolkata by Fax on 12.05.2008) is reproduced below:
Respected Sir,
The Association begs to bring to your kind notice the following major problems of IPs and ASPs in Orissa Circle for your kind information and remedial action.
1. A number of IPs are due to get promotion under ACP but no orders have been issued since January 2006. The cadre of IPs is suffering for about last two and a half years without getting the due financial benefit under ACP which is a time-bound promotion scheme. IP is the only cadre which has been left out of this timely benefit. Correspondences made and items taken as agenda in the periodical meetings from the side of the Association have little effect. It is mentioned that as the CPMG who is the chairperson of the promotion committee is not physically present in Orissa, the case continues to remain pending though the internal process is complete. It is still not known how long it will take to get the benefit.
2. As per Directorate letter No.28-6/88-Bldg dated 29.04.2005 circulated under CO, Bhubaneswar on 05.05.05, Sub-Divisional offices are required to function in suitable departmental accommodation and if suitable accommodation cannot be provided in departmental buildings, the private accommodation can be taken on rent in the same manner as for Sub Offices. Directorate has fixed 180 sft as the standard of accommodation for Sub-Divisional offices. But in Orissa Circle a good number of sub-divisional offices have been compulsorily shifted to sub-standard, congested and unsuitable departmental accommodation, particularly in Berhampur and Sambalpur Regions. Instruction issued from Circle Office again vide letter No. Bldg/5-4/2002 Pt-I dated 13.12.2007 to Divisional heads to provide suitable accommodation as per standard fixed have not been complied with. The matter was brought to the notice of the Regional PMsG of Berhampur and Sambalpur through agenda in the periodical meeting. But the problem continues to remain unsolved.
3. With shifting of Sub-Divisional offices to departmental accommodation from the residences of Sub-Divional IPs & ASPs, the telephone hitherto available in the residences of Sub-divisional offices have been shifted to departmental accommodation. As the Sub-Divisional IPs & ASPs remain away from their offices on tour in connection with their outdoor duty the telephone provided to them in their offices are of little use. To cope with the nature of assigned duty, the IPs & ASPs depend on use of mobile phones incurring a substantial amount. For this reason, the Association has been repeatedly requesting for enhancing the limit of re-imbursement of telephone charges to Rs.750/- per month to cover the expenses of both landline and mobile telephones as has been done in the Circles like WB, AP and Tamilnadu. We are awaiting favourable orders for quite a long time now. But there is no end to the wait. When the matter is discussed in periodical meetings with the administration, the functional and operational justification for provision of residential phone and for enhancement of the limit is questioned. It is not understood how the AAOs in Orissa are having the operational / functional justification to get re-imbursement of expenses of residential telephone upto Rs.848/- per month but the IPs and ASPs, particularly in Sub-Divisions where they are undertaking administrative and supervisory functions over about one hundred post offices to implement the plan and policies of the Department besides attending to the work related to PLI/RPLI/Mutual Funds etc. have either no justification or have limited justification to claim the reimbursement only in selective cases upto Rs.286/- per month (which has been temporarily enhanced to Rs.500/- per month in HQ region but not followed by Divisional heads in majority of the cases on different pretext). Further, it is not understood how the IPs/ASPs in West Bengal Circle (whose CPMG is holding additional charge of Orissa) besides Tamilnadu, Jharkhand Circles - to name a few, are having functional and operational justification to get re-imbursement of residential telephone upto the limit of Rs.750/- per month and their counterpart Orissa are not entitled for it. In Orissa, the instruction have even been interpreted to deny the already permitted facility of re-imbursement of mobile telephone charges within the overall limit of Rs.500/- in majority of the cases. It is mentioned that that the matter like re-imbursement mobile phone charges and enhancement of the ceiling thereof has been left for the decision in the CMC meeting but no CMC meeting has been held for long time now.
4. Because of the sincere effort made by the IPs/ASPs, the Circle has done a record RPLI business of more than 142% ( Rs.426 Crore) of the target in 2007-08 and a record Mutual Fund business of more than Rs.22 Crore against the internal target of Rs.20 crore for the year 2007-08. But when the performance of the IPs /ASPs is discussed, minor irregularities are selectively highlighted without giving due importance to positive aspects and without appreciating the difficult conditions in which the IPs/ASPs are made to work in Sub-Divisions with heavy workload. Where the IPs/ASPs are taking leading role in running the administration in Divisional / Sub-Divisional Units, malicious complaints are made to malign them. Instances have come to the notice that transfers and postings of some ASPs are prejudiced by such malicious complaints and reports, and representations made for re-consideration of such cases have simply been ignored.
5. The Sub-Divisional IPs and ASPs have not been provided with any computer in their offices. Even those who want to get a computer taking advance / loan from the Department, the allotment of funds is kept at very low by which the aspirants are denied the facility. Further, only a few numbers of IPs and ASPs have been given training on computer on departmental software but training on Windows, MS Office, Internet etc. has been left untouched. Without computers available to Sub-Divisional IPs/ASPs for day-to-day use in their official work, the training is of little help to them. Further, a majority of IPs & ASPs have been kept out of computer training programme. The implementation of Inspector software in Orissa is yet to take off as no computer has been provided to Sub-Divisional Heads.
6. Only a handful of IPs and ASPs have been given training on BD products and the majority of the IPs and ASPs are kept out of the BD related activities. But when performance of BD Product is reviewed the whole cadre is criticized.
7. The representations for inter-region transfer of IPs/ASPs have been ignored outright without considering their genuine difficulties of continuing in the respective region.
8. Appeals/petitions preferred by the IPs/ASPs in disciplinary cases have not been disposed of for a quite long time now.
9. A good number of posts of IPs have been kept vacant and the existing IPs/ASPs are made to bear the burden of the additional posts for long period.
Because of the aforesaid problems / difficulties, the morale of the officials of IP & ASP cadre is at all time low as they increasingly feel isolated, neglected, demotivated, discouraged and even frustrated. Before the problems leave an impact on the ‘functional and operational’ performance of IPs and ASPs in coming days, there is urgent need to address them with a degree of sincerity and pragmatism.
The Association, therefore, thought it prudent and expedient to bring the aforesaid local problems of the officials of of IP and ASP cadres in this Circle to your kind notice with hope that the administration will do something worthwhile to provide solution for them in the department’s interest.
Unlike the previous cases, the Association expects acknowledgement of the receipt of this communication this time.
With regards,
Yours faithfully,
(B B Mohanty)
Circle Secretary
Copy issued for kind information and necessary action to:
1. Sri A K Dash, Postmaster General, Sambalpur Region, Sambalpur 768 001
2. Sri S K Kamila, Postmaster General, Berhampur Region, Berhampur (Gm) 760 001
3. Sri S Samuel, General Secretary, All India Association of IPs and ASPs, CHQ, New Delhi-1
