Postal stir hits services

NEW DELHI, July 9: Postal services across the country were paralysed with the strike by postal services employees near-complete on day one. ...

NEW DELHI, July 9: Postal services across the country were paralysed with the strike by postal services employees near-complete on day one. Apart from mail getting completely disrupted, few post offices accepted money orders, insured packages, speedpost or registered letters.

In most states, according to National Federation of Postal Employees NPFC and Federation of National Postal Organisations FNPO, around 90 per cent of postal employees stayed away from work in Delhi, according to NFPC8217;s general secretary R L Bhattacharya, 60 per cent of employees participated in the strike.

While the striking unions have listed nine demands including improved pay-scales and higher bonuses, Communications Minister Sushma Swaraj appealed to postal employees to call off the strike as their demands were being considered by the government. She said that necessary orders to upgrade pay-scales for postmen and mailguards had already been issued and the the Talwar committee8217;s recommendations, such as those onextra-departmental employees, were under consideration.

In Delhi, the fully computerised office at Parliament Street functioned with skeletal staff. Senior postmaster Basudeo said that employees had reported for duty in the morning but joined the strike by noon.

Reports from Mumbai also indicated that postal services were badly affected with more than 50,000 employees in the State participating in the strike. City post offices in Mumbai process around 40 lakh articles of mail everyday. Postal department sources said that no insured packages or money orders were accepted today.

In Nagpur, just 20 of the 71 post offices were functioning, and that too only marginally. Here too, according to the director of postal services for the region, services like speedpost, money orders, and registered letters had been suspended to maintain postal delivery services to most areas.

Reports from Chennai said that while about 150 post offices across the state were kept open, there was no clearance of mail, or delivery,or booking of articles, and only a skeletal staff at Chennai post offices kept the doors open. Chief postmaster K R Rambhad said that mailbags which had arrived till 6 a m on Thursday were sent to the respective post offices, but were not distributed.

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In Karnataka, a majority of the 47,000 employees struck work. Work in all the 150 post offices in Bangalore, including RMS sorting stations, was affected following the stir. In AP, over 90 per cent of the employees went on strike. An official of the postal department8217;s control room in Hyderabad said services like speed post, money order, and registration were affected.

Interestingly, while the Pamp;T SC/ST Employees Welfare Association had called off the strike following negotiations with the Communications Minister, another union the Bharatiya Postal Employees Union which is an affiliate of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh said the strike was politically motivated as the Fifth Pay Commission8217;s recommendations had already been accepted.

The postal department hadmade elaborate arrangements in all circles to maintain essential services. The booking of registered letters and parcels, speed post services, money order services and all savings bank functions would continue during the period of the strike, it said.