The GPO today charge-sheeted seven employees and transferred two others cracking the whip after taking responsibility for the delay in delivery of Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram's letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that created some commotion. But the action did not go down well with the staff of Calcutta General Post Office(GPO) with nearly 1,100 employees going on a lightning strike calling it 'arbitrary." The strike was withdrawn at 1.30 pm. Calcutta GPO Director Anil Kumar issued the charge-sheet to seven employees and ordered transfer of two others of the delivery department for dereliction of duty,GPO sources said. The postal department has already owned responsibility for the delay in the letter sent by the Union Home Minister,referring to armed CPI(M) camps in West Midnapore. Sourmya Banerjee,President of the All-India Postal Employees' Union,affiliated to the National Federation of Postal Employees,said the GPO authorities had taken arbitrary action which should be revoked. "We have urged the post-master general to immediately revoke the orders," he said. Banerjee said that Chidamabaram's letter was sent in 'an ordinary bag' for delivery 'which could not be identified by the skeleton staff working during the restricted holiday on December 24. "Besides the next two days were holidays on account of Christmas and Sunday which caused the delay in delivery of nine postal bags that contained the important letter of the Home minister," he said. A Home Ministry spokesman earlier said in Delhi that the minister¿s letter was sent by Speed Post on December 22. "It reached Kolkata General Post Office on December 24 at 6.00 AM. The letter should,therefore,have been delivered on the same day which was a working day," the spokesman said. The spokesman said India Post General Manager Post Alok Sharma wrote to the Home Ministry on Monday and apologized for the delay in delivery of the "article." Bhattacharya and his CPI-M had said it was regrettable that the contents of the letter were "leaked" to media even before the recipient had received the communication,apparently unware that a postal problem led to its delay in reaching the chief minister.
