Monday, August 25, 2008

Need For Association

The present status is that there is an association which has some of us as members; few among them are functioning as office bearers. They were all nominated by the predecessors of this association, who upon their promotion as Inspectors had hurriedly called for some last-minute meeting and made a stop gap arrangement as they did not find enough time to inform all members about health and the condition of the association. Nor could they be of any help at this point of time to guide us on going ahead and taking forward the association.

It is to recall here that during the past one year or two, many among us have individually or jointly met some of the senior officers in the department on various occasions; seeking timely promotions which were delayed very badly (like TA to STA/STA to Inspr promotion, Ad-hoc promotion as STA, relaxation in eligible years for further promotions). But this attempt did not yield the desired results, and received only a lack-lustre and cold response from them apart from giving inexcusable reasons to deny us our rightful benefits and welfare. The reason for this, we should realize by now, is that there was no unity among us and all of us were seen as separate individuals. There was no real strong force that was necessary, for the Officers to listen to our genuine grievances. They knew that nothing adverse would happen if they do not oblige to such requests. It was clearly felt that an association is always a better forum which can make such requests. An association would definitely bear weight on the minds of the superiors.

But this interest fades away once we all get some instant partial benefit, before actually getting the intended benefit and legitimate dues. Many of you may be a LDC, TA or STA who is aspiring for a promotion to the next grade, i.e., as TA, STA, DOS or Inspector. Some among them are also looking forward to get their date of promotions revised to an earlier date, by way of notional promotion, or ready to seek a relaxation to become eligible for the next promotion as soon as possible. But nobody is succeeding in getting any of these benefits.

As all of us know, every one is interested in knowing what might be his or her pay after the sixth pay commission. But how many of us would have calculated the actual benefits that might come through and pondered over as to whether this will be sufficient? Very few, which is a sad thing. We are stuck in the euphoria of instant gratification, not realising that this attitude lands us in a quagmire.

All of you might be aware of the notice of general strike call given by the Confederation of Central Government Employees, the umbrella organisation of all Central Govt. Associations and Federations for this purpose. How many of us or our colleagues in other cadre participated in that. It is a different matter whether one needed to participate in such a strike. However, the truth is that we will never be able to participate in such a strike to demand on issues of even our basic staff welfare, as we do not have a functional association.

The answer for all this lies in lack of information and unity among us. Information and positive action can be extracted from the Government or other Federations or Associations only if we have an integrated Association of our OWN and are viewed by them as being strong. Then, we can discuss our set of local problems; come up with ideas, suggestions and solutions to overcome them.
But pause for a moment!
To begin with, are we even discussing these things among our own colleagues or friends at our workplace?...
The answer is a big "NO"
We only keep murmuring among ourselves that "we will get nothing", always being cynical about all these things. Unless you ask for something, you will never get anything...

So the answer lies in "Asking". How do we ask? As an individual? As disintegrated groups which have no influence at all? We will get nothing as nobody will listen to you!!

Unless we have an association, we cannot even think of representing for a common cause…. Unless we are strong enough as a unit, we will not be able to bargain for anything. Bargaining can only be through a collective effort.
We, therefore, sincerely hope that we have made a successful attempt to explain as to why an Association is needed. Therefore, to avoid a "YOU versus ME" situation, we wish to have the views of ONE & ALL heard on this subject to arrive at a proper decision in revamping the association and take it forward.

We feel that this has to be done without any further delay so that we can get the required recognition. For this, we should have records to show that there is an association which is functional. The existing state of affairs of the present Karnataka Ministerial Association not so satisfactory, there is an urgent need to revamp this. We would like to elect new functioning office-bearers and the first simplest step is in mobilizing members and contributing a nominal amount by way of monthly subscription through the salary. Proof of this subscription in the form of a certificate is to be obtained from the concerned DDO and the same will be forwarded to the Board/Ministry for recognition.

The details of this are available at :
http://rapidshare.com/files/139942077/annexure_III_willingness.doc.html .

You can download the same and use it. A meeting of all the members would soon be held on a convenient date, after getting responses to this article. The success or failure of this is entirely dependant on the decision each and every one of you make. We expect all of you to show the same amount of interest as you expect from others on this.

Therefore, we request you all to please shed your inhibitions, keep aside your misgivings and misconceptions and forget those misunderstandings. Come and join this movement so that we can do something for our welfare...FOR OUR WELFARE..
- R E M E M B E R -
"Individually, we are one drop.
Together, we are an ocean."
For this at the national level, we have the support and guidance of the All India Federation of our ministerial cadre, which has the associations of other states in our department as its members. The details of the office bearers are available at http://aiccemof.blogspot.com/ .

The All India Federation (AICCEMOF) is recognised by the Confederation at the centre. The Confederation has its own blog -
http://www.confederationhq.blogspot.com/ where the views and news are updated regularly and people keep posting comments. Similarly, the Karnataka Inspectors Association has a website of their own - http://www.aiceiakar.com/ and their All India Federation has its blog at http://www.aiceia.blogspot.com/.
Inspired by this, we have started off a blog and are attempting to make this as our rallying point. Our blog address is http://karmin-cce.blogspot.com/. Through this we invite one and all to visit this blog, to know more about us. It is a newly created one and the related contents will be updated in due course. We look forward for positive feedback from each and every one of you, towards achieving this goal. Suggestions are always welcome to improve the content of this blog. Individual articles/critique/commentary related to any event/issue affecting our ministerial cadre can be sent via email also, so that the same could be posted on our blog, from time to time.

All Comments / Correspondences may be addressed to
karccemoa@gmail.com

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