Memorandum of Demands

The Director General of Meteorology,
India Meteorological Department,
Mausam Bhavan, Lodi Road,
New Delhi-110 003
[Kind Attention: Shri R.C.Bhatia, DGM]
Sub: Memorandum of Demands.
R/Sir,
Consequent upon G.B.Meeting of the Association held on 12-02-2008 at Seminar Hall, N.Delhi and the comments/inputs received from all Regions, the following proposals were passed unanimously for your kind intervention:

1. To expedite implementation of S.K.Das Manpower Restructuring Committee report in IMD considering the proposals of all Recognized Associations of IMD.
2.The Committee under the chairmanship of Shri S.K.Banerjee, ADGM (H&A) constituted to review additional Scientific workforce required in IMD for implementation of various plan schemes under Modernization of IMD, has mentioned the proposal of only one Association under para 7.9(page 32) whereas there is neither any mention about the proposals submitted by other recognized Association of the Deptt nor their views/suggestions taken care of, thus defying the mandate for which it was constituted. The said committee has unilaterally proposed on page18 to convert 693 vacancies (due to retirement upto March, 2012) of AM-I and below be converted to 500 posts of the level of Met Grade I (Scientist Gr-B) which this Association strongly oppose because there is acute stagnation in the foundation Scientific & Technical cadres where the promotions are vacancy based. The Sanction strength (as on 01-04-2007) from L.A. to AM-I is 4441 and the Men in position is 3505. The foundation Scientific & Technical cadres are already under-staffed/short by 936 posts (as on 01-04-2007) as there is no recruitment for more than decades time, the said manpower will further deplete by 1629 posts till 2012. As a result of this, not only the workload on foundation Scientific & Technical cadres have increased manifold but also, their transferability factor. All vacant posts in different regions be immediately filled –up.
3. To immediately regularize all 728 S.A/AM-II ad-hoc posts in IMD.
4. As per existing R/Rules, there is common seniority for promotion to Scientific- Assistant (Senior Observer & Draughtsman in the ratio of 1:38), Assistant- Meteorologist Gr-I [Assistant Meteorologist Gr-II & Assistant Meteorologist Gr-II (Foreman)]; the same should also be applicable for promotion to Meteorologist Gr-I (in the cadre of Assistant Meteorologist Gr-I and Meteorologist Gr-II in the ratio of 80:20).
5. IMD employees serving in Airports/Ports should get facilities at par with AAI/Port officials.
6. DPC should be conducted at regular fixed intervals as per DOP&T norms.

The employees are aggrieved and frustrated due to continued negligence of their career and welfare prospects by the management for more than four decades. As a result, majority of the employees are compelled to seek legal remedy for even petty matters, which can be resolved with timely intervention and follow-up action. With bleak promotional avenues and adding a tag of ad-hoc on promotion with transfers (for more than four years), the employees feels more humiliating than punishment for no fault on their part and prefers ACP rather than promotion.
This Association has submitted several representations to all concerned competent authorities and met Hon’ble Minister in charge and Secretary MoES apprising about the ground realities of the employees, but the status quo persists till date. Due to continued resentment, it has been decided that all employees will initially express their peaceful protest country wide by wearing black bands/badges from 19th-20th March, 2008 and WMO Day will be observed as a BLACK-DAY on 24-03-2008(23rd March, 2008 being Sunday). If the Administration does not pay any heed to our genuine demands, than other means of protest will be explored.

Considering above facts, you are requested to apprise this Association about the status and action taken on the above points (in writing) in order to communicate the same to all members.
Kindly confirm.
Yours Sincerely,



(M.P.Sharma)
General Secretary
Copy to: 1. Secretary, MoES
2. Hon’ble Minister MoES






Yours Sincerely,



(M.P.Sharma)
General Secretary








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EMPLOYEE'S CONFIDENTIAL REPORT

Rejecting government's submission that an annual confidential report (ACR) is sacrosanct, the Punjab State Information Commission has in a landmark verdict upheld the right of an employee to have access to his or her ACR.

An application moved by Faquir Chand Sharma, an office superintendent in the Public Works Department (Buildings and Roads), to his executive engineer for supply of copies of his ACRs for six years - from 2000 to 2006 - under the Right to Information Act (RTI) was rejected on the plea that the information sought was exempt from the purview of the RTI Act.

Aggrieved Faquir Chand preferred an appeal before the State Information Commission by raising a pertinent issue as to "whether an employee is entitled, under the RTI Act, 2005, to have access to his or her ACR or not."

Though the appeal was initially listed before State Information Commissioner (SIC) R.K. Gupta who subsequently desired that a Full Bench of the commission dispose this appeal, as its decision would have far-reaching implications.

A Full Bench comprising Rajan Kashyap, R.K. Gupta and Surinder Singh was constituted with Brij Mohan Lal, an advocate, made amicus curiae. Additional Secretary, personnel of the Punjab Government, too appeared on behalf of the executive engineer. The order, issued on November 5, has been posted on the website of the commission.

It was argued that information in an ACR was held by the state in a fiduciary relationship, and, therefore, in terms of the RTI Act, unless larger public interest warrants to the contrary, it was exempt from disclosure.

Further, it was argued that the information sought was personal and had no relationship to public activity. Further, an order of the Central Information Commission as well as federal instructions that the ACRs are not to be communicated or shown to the officer concerned except to the extent of communicating any adverse remarks were also made for denying the application.

The Full Bench held that the rules and instructions have to give way to the legislative command. Further, the RTI Act, the bench held, was a progressive measure aimed at bringing about greater transparency in the working of the government.

"In our view keeping officials informed about how their superiors assess their performance would only result in improvement in the overall work environment," the order said.

"We are convinced that permitting the disclosure of ACR entries to the employee concerned would lead the reporting officers to be more fair and objective in their assessment. This would lead to overall betterment of the morale of the employees and a consequential improvement in the administration," the order said.

-- IMD_N.G.SCIENTIFIC STAFF ASSOCIATION --
CHAMBER NO.03 ,MAUSAM BHAWAN COMPUND,
LODHI ROAD NEW DELHI110003
Mobile numbers : :
9868884492 M.P SHARMA :
9818583713 RIZWAN AHMED :
9911371411 R.H.SHARMA :
9868901674 RAVINDER KUMAR :
9810975536 SITARAM VERMA

Ammendment of RR of AM-II

Dear All,
Sometime ago,I have made one RTI application to UPSC requesting them to inform me about the status of approval from UPSC regarding ammendment of RR of AM-II.UPSC has informed me vide their letter no.F. No.2/30/2006-RR dated 31.01.2008 that the matter is under process and can be processed only after receiving the reply from IMD w.r.t UPSC letter no. F.No.3/39(I)/2006-RR dated 22.01.2008 . In fact UPSC has agreed to process the case by adding a note of 100% promotion to AM-II cadre and the note should be restricted upto 5 years.Once adhoc, AM-II are regularised, automatically the adhioc SA will be regularised.Scanned copies of correspondences attached for ready reference.
Regards,
Raja AcharyaE-2,DGM's OfficeNew Delhi-110003
-- IMD_N.G.SCIENTIFIC STAFF ASSOCIATION
CHAMBER NO.03 ,
MAUSAM BHAWAN COMPUND,
LODHI ROAD NEW DELHI110003