‘Make optimal use of postal assets for national benefit’ : CHANDAN MITRA

Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra on Friday observed that the assets of the Department of Posts were vast national resources, which should be used to maximise benefit to the nation and bolster the financial performance of the department.
He was inaugurating the seventh biennial conference of the Bhubaneswar divisional branch of the All India Postal Employees’ Union (AIPEU), Group-C.
His observation came in the backdrop of a situation wherein postal authorities have nine plots of land in Bhubaneswar but a lot of their official activities were operating from rented premises, with dilapidated buildings and poor infrastructure.
Mitra pointed out that historically, the postal department and the Indian Railways have functioned as pillars of national unity and integration, but in the present rapidly changing scenario, postal activities must be transformed to keep in sync with changes in the modern world and face competition without diluting their character.
He said the Government’s move to give post offices the role of a bank and route MGNREGA remittances through them was an indicator of the important role that the 1,55,000-outlet-strong department could play in providing service to more than six lakh villages.
Mitra assured the AIPEU members that he, along with some Odisha MPs, would meet departmental Union Minister Sachin Pilot and draw his attention to their grievances. Lok Sabha Member from Odisha Mohan Jena, who also spoke on the occasion, promised the union members that he would continue to fight for their cause in New Delhi.
MLA of Bhubaneswar (Central) Bijay Kumar Mohanty observed that in spite of Odisha having two GPOs while many other States have only one, the postal department had continued to ignore the State in providing infrastructure and amenities for customer service.
Chairman of Reception Committee for the conference and MLA Jeetu Patnaik urged the MPs to take up the grievances of the employees with the authorities in Delhi.
The session saw felicitation of retired departmental employees, including Pranab Kumar Das who lost a limb in the parcel bomb incident a few years ago. The employees demanded provision of detectors of such bombs in Post Offices among other issues.
The conference was presided over by president of AIPEU Bhubaneswar Divisional Branch Purna Chandra Das.

Aadhar card ; Boon for Department of Posts , Bane for the employees.

The government on Wednesday said as many as 3.86 crore Aadhaar letters are in the process of being dispatched while 6.46 lakh cards could not be delivered by the postal department due various reasons such as incomplete address.


As on April 20, 2012 a total of 17 crore Aadhaar numbers had been generated and 10.44 crore have been dispatched, Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.


 "Out of these (10.44 crore letters), 6.58 crore Aadhaar letters have been delivered as reported by India Post and the remaining 3.86 crore letters are in transit," Kumar, who is also Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Science said.


He further said that as per the portal of the Department of Posts, the total returned letters as on April 20, 2012, stood at 6.46 lakh. This is 0.98 per cent of total Aadhaar letters delivered..


                                                           This is the statistics of the government. But the problems of the departmental employees has been over looked.The UIDs are coming large in numbers . In fact these cards are comming in special bags containing not less than 2000 articles in each bag. But the number of PAs are also constant.Opening of bags, receive of articles in computer for 2000 articles will take not less than 4 hours.If the postmen waits for 4 hours , naturally their number of delivery will decrease.  The number of fresh postman posting is almost negligible. The department is curtailing the vacant posts of  postmen in various sub offices with the posting of EDs (Extra Departmental) employees. But the duty hour of a ED is almost half from a postman. In their short duty hours also they are being forced by the postmasters for 100% delivery of the UID cards.We can't blame the postmasters totally. They are also forced by the CO for 100 % delivery.If postmen are forced in this summer , then who will be held responsible if any mishap arises to any postmen ? No doubt department will gain more profit from this project , but what will a general postman / an ED will gain from this ? 
                                             Department of Posts neither have any infrastructure to help a postman in his delivery work , nor have any intension for the genuine human rights of the postmen.