Hyderabad, April 23: Asking staff of Income-Tax to work without fear of being implicated in false corruption cases, the chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sudhir Chandra has assured them that the department will not take cognizance of anonymous petitions charging them with corruption.
He told a meeting here on Friday that 900 such petitions were closed in the last three months. He expressed surprise how the petitions went into files though the Central Vigilance Commission had clarified that they would not be entertained.
Mr. Sudhir Chandra was speaking at the inauguration of the national executive meeting of IT SC/ST employees’ federation.
Stating that he had no intention of sparring employees on service matters, he appealed to them to allow him to hold meetings of the departmental promotion committee regularly to resolve issues of transfer and promotion. The department planned to put information relating to individual transfers, promotions and other grievances on its website.
He expressed his helplessness when it was brought to his notice that only two Chief Commissioners of Income-Tax in the country were from SCs and STs. “It is a national issue”, he remarked.
He promised to convey a decision on according recognition to the SC/ST employees’ federation after consulting the Department of Personnel and Training. Some leaders of the federation earlier told the meeting that a similar body in the Railways was granted official recognition.
Grievance
A former bureaucrat and now chairman of National Commission for SCs, Panna Lal Punia, said it was the cardinal principle of justice, confirmed by Supreme Court, that a senior employee be automatically promoted if a junior was given promotion. He was responding to a grievance that SC employees were overlooked for promotions while their junior colleagues from general category got them.
A member of the commission, Raju Parmar, said the anomaly that SC employees who secured marks on par with general candidates in the departmental exams for promotion be considered in the reserved category was unfair.
The meeting was also addressed by a former IT officer and chairperson of National Commission for Safai Karmachari Kamlaben Gurjar and Chief Commissioner of IT A.K. Basu.
–Agencies