Postal services hit by strike

AHMEDABAD, July 9: Work came to a standstill at almost all the post offices in the State with majority of over 35,000 postal department empl...

AHMEDABAD, July 9: Work came to a standstill at almost all the post offices in the State with majority of over 35,000 postal department employees joined the national-level indefinite strike on Thursday, demanding proper implementation of Fifth Pay Commission recommendations.

8220;Services have certainly been affected as 75 per cent of the employees in almost all the centres have gone on strike8221;, Postal Services Director Gujarat Circle Keyur Patel told Express Newsline.

In rajkot, over 2,000 employees kept off the offices and about one lakh letters and other items had piled up at post offices by evening.

Similarly, in Ahmedabad a large number of inward and outward mail lay scattered outside the Railway Mail Service counter at Kalupur Railway Station.

The Mail Motor Service MMS too remained disrupted as very few mail motors were allowed to transport the mail by the technical division staff.

Thousands of outward mail bags could not be transported from the General Post Office, where even 75 per cent employees did not join the strike. The mail motors remained parked in the GPO throughout the day.

Patel claimed the outward despatches by air and train remained unaffected as these had been sorted the previous day. 8220;We may not have received mail from outside the Circle, but we are going to handle the outward mail in each post office from tomorrow8221;, Patel said.

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Elaborating on the preparedness, he said, now the mail would be sorted at post offices instead of the RMS counters as done usually. He claimed the GPO had 100 per cent attendance and work went on smoothly at some post offices at Navrangpura, Paldi and Ellisbridge too.

Similarly, the sale of stamps and stationery continued at some centres. 8220;After reviewing manpower availability tomorrow, we may start the money order, registration and booking services at major centres of Ahmedabad8221;, he said, adding 8220;with bare essential manpower now, we want to ensure basic services first.8221;

8220;Another channel through which we can transport mail is Gujarat State Road Transport Service, where I don8217;t see much of a problem8221;, Patel added.

To ensure normal mail services to the corporate, business and traditional sectors, officials claimed students or unemployed youths had been roped in with the help of employment exchanges.

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When contacted, employees of the postal section at GPO said they did not join the strike because all the main leaders of their union, who were supposed to give the call and manage the post-strike situation, had been placed under suspension long ago. They, however, said they might join the strike tomorrow depending on the outcome of the talks continuing between them and their counterparts in the technical division.