F.No. Ref.
No. AIACEGEO/Deptt.Comm./01/2020 Dated
: 02.07.2020
To
The Chief
Commissioner (CCA),
CGST and
Central Excise,
Vadodara
Zone, Vadodara.
Sir,
Subject : Directions issued to the
officers in field formations to create social media accounts
and to follow CBIC pages/twitter handles – regarding
Our
member officers have brought to the notice of the association that reports have
been sought by CGST Surat, CGST Surat-Audit and CGST Daman Commissionerates as
to whether the field officers are having social media accounts or not. The
officers have also been directed to follow CBIC from their social media
accounts and in case, they do not have one, they should create a new account on
Facebook and Twitter and follow CBIC.
2. Sir, we respectfully submit that unlike other traditional
media, social media is more interactive, enables one-to-one conversation and
demands immediacy in response. Also, on such platforms the perception of
official and personal roles and boundaries is often blurred. Unlike department,
which is an independent entity having no interpersonal interactions,
individuals have a different role to play while using social media. Individuals
have a personal life apart from departmental life. They express their
creativity, social awakening issues, relationship quotes/texts etc. on social
media and while interacting with the virtual world they wish to present their
individuality, which they keep in higher esteem separate and hidden from their
official positions. When it comes to express our views before the authorities,
we follow the simple quote of Thomas Edward Brown :
“Money is honey, my little sonny,
And a rich man’s joke is always funny.”
Further,
to quote from the Forbes magazine, many researchers have proved that social
media usage are linked to several potential negative effects such as
cyber-bullying, Facebook depression, social media addictions and is severely
damaging for mental well-being. It very often has resulted into neglect of
personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, tolerance and concealing the
addictive behavious and triggers more sadness. Further, it makes people
vulnerable to cyber attacks especially to those who are not much tech-savvy.
3. Needless to say, that a number of guidelines have already
been issued prohibiting criticism of government policies on social media and
we, the disciplined government employees follow that even more than in letter
and spirit, we do not even dare to criticize our superiors lest they should
consider even their criticism as a criticism of the government. We have way
back almost accepted that communication with our superiors is always one way
traffic. Their communications must be responded in no time and our entreaties
should remain even unacknowledged. Examples are numerous letters addressed to
your goodself by our association, which haven’t been even acknowledged till
today.
4. Sir, we are unable to find out as to which clause of CCS
Conduct Rules or any other OMs provide for compulsory use of social media by
government employees. As far as the policies of the government to publish its
schemes, public policies are concerned, these are required to reach out to the
concerned general public and should be appreciated or criticized by the general
public only. Flaunting likes or retweets received from the employees would in
fact result into caricature of false reality and would adversely affect the
decision making process of the government.
5. We as a responsible association, may suggest our members to
join these social media platforms if we are assured that our members are
encouraged to make bonafide comments/criticisms on the social media platforms
by CBIC and we as stakeholders are consulted in such decisions. We may request
our members to use social media platforms and follow/like CBIC if our members
are provided digital instruments, net-connectivity at the departmental costs
and also provided proper trainings to avoid any phishing/spam attacks etc. and
also that they shouldn’t be expected to like or retweet each and every posts
and it should not involve them as much to cost their personal and family lives.
6. Hope our concerns are perceived by your goodself in positive
light and the directions for use of social media, which prima-facie appears
arbitrary and unreasonable is withdrawn. We, in turn suggest that requests may
be made to this effect in place of directives, as remaining on social media
platforms is a personal choice and should be exercised at the sole discretion
of the officer concerned.
Thanking
you. With regards.
Yours faithfully,
(M.S. PRABHAT)
General Secretary
Copy to :
1.
The
Commissioner, CGST Surat/Surat Audit/Daman.
2.
The
Secretary General, AIACEGEO (All India Body)
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