State Engineers' Association Tripura
(Recognized as a Service Association by the Govt. Of Tripura
Vide No.F.30(15)-ADR/95 dt.19-05-1998 of the A.R. Department)
A Constituent Body of Indian Engineers Federation
State Engineers’ Association, Tripura (SEAT), is the most powerful Association of the State asits members are mainly responsible for the Development works of Tripura. Initially it was formed as the “Tripura Graduate Engineers’ Association”.
In the beginning, the entry post of Graduate Engineers in Tripura comprising Civil and Electrical Engineers in PWD was Assistant Engineer. From the year 1963, in view of acute unemployment problem of Engineers, Tripura PWD started recruiting Graduate Engineers in the post of ‘Overseers’ allowing seven advance increments. Engineers in Tripura PWD holding Gazetted posts were un-willing to form any Association with the Graduate Engineers holding the non-Gazetted posts of Overseers. But some of those underemployed Graduate Engineers (Overseers) were subsequently appointed as Assistant Engineers through UPSC. In 1967 there was seven such underemployed Graduate Engineers. In December, 1967 those seven Engineers formed an Association in the name of “Tripura Graduate Engineers’ Association”.
President – Er. Gopal Chandra Dutta, Secretary- Er. Chandan Sengupta, Treasurer- Er.Amrit Bhattacharjee. Other members of the Association were,Er. Bhaskar Nandi Majumder, Er. BimanSaha, Er. S. B. Dey, Er. P. K. Debnath. The Association effectively started functioning from the year 1968.
The Association placed demand for expansion of PWD towards the interest of development works. In the year 1972, the first ‘Chief Engineer’ setup was formed in place of earlier ‘Principal Engineer’ setup with lot of expansion in the PWD. The Association started functioning from Municipality building at Kaman Chowmuhani. Next year i.e. during 1973 in a General Meeting of the Association, the name of the Association had been changed to existing “State Engineers’ Association, Tripura” (SEAT). At that time the president of the Association was Er. Bhaskar Nandi Majumder, and the Secretary was Er. S.S. Chakraborty. The number of members of the Associationwas around 50 during that year. In the year 1976 all the Gazetted Graduate Engineers of the PWD who werein the beginning un-willing to become member of an Association having non-Gazetted Graduate Engineers, also took membership of SEAT. For swift development of the state, the Association again placed demand for further expansion.
In the year 1978, the Irrigation and PHE wing of PWD was created. In order to realise the financial demand of the Association “Work to Rule” movement was started by the members of the Association in January 1980, which ended in March 1980 after an agreement was signed in between Govt. of Tripura and SEAT. But the Govt. did not implement the agreement and the demands were not fulfilled.
As such the Association again resorted to “Work to Rule” in May 1981 which continued for about five months. During that period other forms of agitation like mass Casual Leave, Stay in strike were also resorted to. That agitation was marginally called off in Sept. 1981 following assurance given by the Govt.
In the year 1982, three District Committees of the Association were formed. The technical magazine of the Association “Nirman” was first published in the year 1983. After sustained pleas, the Service Rules of ‘Tripura Engineering Service’ and ‘Tripura Power Engineering Service’ were approved by the Govt. in the year 1987, though it was never implemented in Toto.
Through 1988-90, due to intense Association activities all the degree holder Junior Engineers of that time had been Re-designated as Assistant Engineers after completion of 1 year of Service. The entry post of Degree holder Engineers were made as Assistant Engineers. But due to unwarranted pressure from different corners, the entry post was again relegated to Junior Engineer. Some Junior Engineers were also recruited on fixed pay basis. Again on 1997 Junior Engineers were recruited on fixed pay basis. As such the problems affecting the entry post of the Graduate Engineers continued. Ultimately after prolonged demands and activities it was decided by the Govt. on 30th March 2002 that the fixed payee JEs will be en-cadred w.e.f. 1st May 2002.
Original constitution of the Association framed at the time of formation could not be located afterwards. Hence a new constitution was framed and adopted in the year 1993 i.e. at the Silver Jubilee year. At that time, the number of Association members was 394 and ‘Life Membership’ was introduced. Publishing of “News Letter” also started from that year. During that period, a plot of land measuring one Ganda was allotted in favour of our Association at Childrens’ Park by Agartala Municipality on lease basis. The Foundation stone of the Association Building was laid on 12-06-1993 by the then Engineer-in–Chief & Secretary, PWD, Late N.K. Sinha. However, as the Bearing capacity of the soil was poor, construction of Building could not be started.
Following untiring demand from the Association, during the year 2000, Officers who have completed 17 years of continuous and satisfactory service in the existing grade had been allowed movement to the next grade of the cadre service. Though the order was never revoked, afterwards it was noticed that the benefit of this movement which was aimed to remove acute stagnation, was diluted, ultimately making it equivalent to the higher scales only. At that time, the Association was also able to upgrade the pay scale of Executive Engineers and Additional Chief Engineers.
It is very praiseworthy that members of the Association get involved in Social, Philanthropic, Entertainment, Academic, Sports etc. activities.
During fifty years of journey, the number of current members of the Association grown from a mere seven to around 1294 and the numbers are still increasing. There are also about 112 Honorary members who had retired from their services and some of current & Honorary members had also passed away.
