Postal services paralysed

NEW DELHI, Dec 5, 2000 — Postal services all over the country were paralysed with more than six lakh employees of the department going on an indefinite strike to demand among other things, higher wages.

The government, maintaining that the employees were attempting to reopen old issues despite the full and final settlement of all pending demands, said it was putting a contingency plan into action, whereby skeletal services would be maintained.

The employees federations — National Federation of Postal Employees, Federation of National Postal Organisations and Bharatiya Postal Employees Federation — claimed 80 per cent success on the first day of the strike with the impact in West Bengal and Kerala being cent per cent.

Employees observed a dharna in front of various post offices in the Capital and a mountain of mail bags lay unattended at airports and stations.

“There are demonstrations in front of all post offices in the Capital and parts of the country”, general secretary of the National Federation of Postal Employees C. Chandran Pillai said.

He said the entire fleet of mail motor service had been grounded. He ruled out the possibility of withdrawing the strike till the government accepted their demands.

On the demands of the federations, an official statement said: “In respect of extra departmental agents, the postal federations have been making fresh demands even though the Group of Ministers considered these demands in 1998 and the Cabinet approved improvement in the working conditions of the ED staff as full and final settlement of all pending demands.”

Announcing the contingency plan, the government said the Chief Post Master-General of all states had been instructed to provide skeletal postal services in respect of transmission and delivery of mail and payment of money.

It has been decided to keep all VSATs functional and speed post services operational throughout the country.

At the headquarters, a control room has been set up to monitor the situation and take appropriate steps towards maintaining essential postal services.

The statement said postal services all over the country had been affected in varying degrees following the strike.

The demands of the employees are: implementation of the positive recommendations of Justice Charanjit Talwar Committee for extra-departmental employees with particular reference to grant of status and pension, implementation of agreed proposals signed on December 18, 1998.