President’s message on the occasion of the 67^th Federation Day.

On this 67^th foundation day of our Federation I have the pleasure and privilege to extend  warm greetings to all of you .  We shall be hoisting the Federation Flag this year with great pride for we could ensure cent per cent participation of our members in the National General Strike organized by the Central Trade unions of the country unitedly on 8^th and 9^th January 2019.  It was a magnificent demonstration of the unity and militancy of our organization, so assiduously built over the years. In the assembly of organizations of Central Government employees, we stand in a unique manner, for we have achieved total unity of the Incometax employees under one banner, one Federation and one leadership.  The ITGOA also supported the strike action by wearing black badges, or by taking casual leave or directly participating in the strike action as was done by their Mumbai unit, which is really salutable.

The 8^th and 9^th two day strike action in which millions of workers in our country from all walks of life took part was the thunderous response of the  working class to the rulers who had been unashamedly pursuing the neo liberal economic policies to sub-serve the interest of corporates in the country and through them their alien masters.  The BMS, the trade union wing of the ruling party,  alone stayed away from this glorious, militant and united action of the Indian working class, though their rank and file defied the fiat of their leaders and took part in the struggle which was inevitable for the emancipation  of our homeland itself from the sure possibility of being subjugated again. 

The participation of CGEs in the two days strike action this year, recorded as the highest ever , as the Confederation could convince its ranks that the focus of the struggle shall be the demand for the withdrawal of the New contributory pension scheme introduced by the Government in 2004. The young members took it upon themselves to help the organization to spread the pernicious impact of NPS,  The wider usage of social media instruments helped the campaign to reach out to the otherwise  unreachable and elicit their active involvement.  For the young comrades, the two days action was a confidence building exercise and it shall stand in good stead in building up the efficacy of our organization. 

This year had also been a year of constant struggles and mobilization to bring about a negotiated settlement on some pressing and pending departmental issues  The struggle has helped to setup the next cadre review committee which shall certainly go a long way in improving the career prospects of our members.  The cessation  of search and seizure operations for which the call was given by the JCA did act as a powerful tool to compel the administration to come for a serious negotiation. 

It is now widely recognized that the pursuance of neo-liberal policies by successiveGovernments have been extremely harmful to the country at large and the common multitude of the people in particular.  The inequality in the society has been accentuated and the employment generation has been dwindled. 

Every election in the democratic society is an occasion for the people to remind their rulers of their unkept promises and the need to discard policies which bring about penury and agony to them. In a few months time,  the country will go in for polls to elect a new Federal Government.  The new contributory pension scheme, the Government employees well recognizes now is an offshoot of the economic policies ushered in 1991 and followed by  the two major political outfits in our country.  There must have a change of policies to ensure that the old pension scheme should be restored by the new Govt. and a democratic and secular Government which takes care of the common  people ingeneral and Govt. employees in particular is brought to power.   

RAVINDRAN B. NAIR

PRESIDENT, ITEF.