Circle Council Meeting & Circle Working Committee meeting of AIPEU, Gr.-C, Odisha Circle concluded

The Circle Council Meeting and Circle Working Committee meeting of AIPEU, Group-C, Odisha Circle branch was held from 02.05.2014 to 04.05.2014 at Gujurati Samaj Bhawan, Keonjhargarh. Bhubaneswar Division was represented by its Asst. Secretary  Com. Dipti Ranjan Mohanty and Circle Councilor Com. Kailash Ch. Sahoo. Com. B Samal, Asst. Circle Secretary could not attend the meeting due to a death case in his family.

 

I’ve Got Mail

BG Verghese (left) and Karan Singh at the book launch. 

Sher Singh’s job is to carry mails between Raksham and Chitkul, villages situated at 11,150 ft in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, where nobody asks, “Do we still have Dak-Runners?” Across India, on landscapes where no wheel will turn, Dak-Runners such as Singh strap mailbags to their shoulders and stride towards remote settlements. Chitkul, for instance, is the last village on the Himachal Pradesh-China border. Singh, 49, was in Delhi —  his first time in the Capital — for the launch of journalist BG Verghese’s book, Post Haste, which is dedicated to “the Dak-Runners of India, who still connect us contemporaneously and with our past”.

“I never see what is in the mail but I expect there are several job letters and exam roll numbers. I know there are people waiting for these and this keeps me going,” says Singh, a day after the launch, at the offices of Tranquebar-Westland, publishers of Post Haste.

Even in Delhi, Singh wears his uniform of khakhi shirt and trousers, paired with thick leather shoes and pink woollen socks. Outdoor, the sun is blazing but the Dak-Runner isn’t breaking into a sweat. “These shoes and socks never become hot in summer or cold in the snow. I can wear them in Delhi, Mumbai, in the hills, anywhere,” he says. Singh had the shoes and socks made for the job, while the uniform is a postal department issue.

There are no roads on his beat, informs Singh, only paths made by animals and a few humans. “It is 12 km from Raksham to Chitkul and takes three hours to cover. I hand over the mailbag at the post office in Chitkul and carry a fresh bag back to Raksham,” he says. At Raksham, he exchanges mailbags with a Dak-Runner on the Sangla-Raksham stretch. Singh has mastered the Dak-Runner’s walk. “One doesn’t speed up or slow down, we maintain the same pace all through,” he says.

The Himalayan ranges beyond Kinnaur district, is home to thick forests in which landslides are as frequent as sheep, yaks, goats and leopards. “I came across a cheetah twice. If I had run, the animal would have chased me, so I stood still. I could hear my heart hammering. I was sure I would be killed,” he says. At other times, he has come across bears and had leopards leaping across his path on their way to the khuds below or the forests above. “During winter, when the snow is up to my thighs, I watch out for footprints before deciding my course,” he says, adding, “I have a staff but I am all alone so have to be alert.”

Singh has an erect posture and an unsmiling, focused look. The only time his voice charges up is when he recalls the story of the legendary Dak-Runners of India. A primary school pass-out, Singh has never read the history of Dak-Runners, but the buzurg (elderly people) at home would talk about men who would “walk in such a way that everybody stepped aside.” “These were the dakiya, now called Dak-Runners, and they walked night and day. There were ghungroos tied to their feet and on the staff in their hands so that everybody knew 10-15 km ahead that a dakiya was on his way. Even snakes moved out of their path,” he says.

According to Post Haste, such messengers were called harkaras and the Mughal empire had a network of 4,000. Verghese says nobody knows how many Dak-Runners still exist in India, though the postal department apparently puts the number at 150-200. They operate in mountain regions of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and the Northeast.

Singh, son of a farmer, still practises farming in a five bigha land in his ancestral village of Bhabhanagar, where his family, which includes his six children, live. “It is 120 km from where I work, so I visit on Sundays,” he says. No, he doesn’t walk the way, he takes a bus.

Source :  http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/ive-got-mail/99/

A nostalgic take on the persevering post office

India has the largest postal network in the world with over 1.55 lakh post offices, most of them in rural areas. The network has grown seven-fold since Independence, with the focus of this expansion primarily on rural areas. Yet, the growth in terms of numbers and reach is slowing down.

As in the rest of the world, the post office is on the wane in India. Unless it reinvents itself and takes on new roles to meet emerging expectations and needs, it is entirely possible that we may see them on their way out, at least in the present form. Some new products and services, including Speed Post, Internet banking for savings accounts, ‘e-post’, ‘i-money orders’ and so on have added a contemporary resonance to the post office.

The Finance Minister announced earlier this year that all post offices in the country would be using modern technology by 2015 under the IT modernisation project for the Department of Posts.

At least in the cities, one does notice attempts to add a fresh coat of red paint to post offices, though most of them still sport that familiar musty odour, shaky furniture and blotches of glue that have made a mess of the space meant for pasting stamps, writing letters and filling up forms.

Regardless of the negative connotations that mark the atmosphere in the post office, there is the ubiquitous postcard about which much could be said. Modern toolsThe gates of the World Wide Web are now open before us, and the mobile phone has turned the art of communication into the SMS. Twitter has meanwhile reduced our eloquence to 140 characters, and Facebook has restricted our predilections to ‘Like’ and ‘Unlike’. WhatsApp has brought a new lexicon to our idiom. Yet, the post card still seems to symbolise the star player in establishing contact among relatives, friends, siblings and acquaintances.

Along with such changes sweeping our lives, the art of letter-writing is on the wane. In the good old days, letters bonded people -- parents, siblings, friends, acquaintances -- regardless of where they were stationed. Those little homilies and personal touches packed the post cards.

The elder children in a family would usually play the role of an amanuensis, taking down dictation from their parents and reading out the contents of the replies to them. The innocent pleasure they displayed when lending their ears to the contents was to be seen to be believed.

People eagerly waiting at the doorstep to greet the all-important postman was an occasion to savour.

The bell of his cycle was often the harbinger of good news. The capped and uniformed postman would puff up in importance as he surveyed the anxious faces and pulled out a sheaf of letters and post cards from his worn-out, weather-beaten bag. It was as if he was pulling out some long-lost bounty from the heavens.

The bespectacled patriarch would clear his throat and after some preliminary discussions on the domestic front and struggling with his rusted spectacles hanging precariously on the bridge of his nose (thanks to a thread wound around his ears), would set to write his letter on the yellow post card.

Every centimetre of the card, including the space on top of the stamp, would be utilised. The treasured Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman or Doric pen with its quaint nib would invariably run out of ink. Unable to open the barrel of the pen, he would open an old Ink-bottle and gently dip his pen into the bottom and resume his writing.

He would wake up early in the morning and write letters on postcards to all his near and dear ones and update them on recent family happenings.

Another quaint custom of those days involved the tagging of all postcards and sundry bits of paper on a mounted long metal wire and bunching them by month and year. The stored post cards served as a sort of archives to be dipped into whenever the need arose.

It is unfortunate that these simple pleasures of communication are lost on us today thanks to modern means of “touching base”.

The pleasures of expectation and eager anticipation no longer seem to exist in the humdrum of our lives today. Gone with the art of letter-writing are many a nuance of communication that brought a smile to one's lips, a lump in the throat, a tear to the eyes or a dimple to a romantic cheek! Nothing, it would seem, is left to the imagination anymore.

One wonders whether Gen-Next will have the time and patience for such long-drawn methods of communication. Truth to tell, even the elders among us are beginning to find the electronic means of interacting more convenient and user-friendly.

Some time ago the media sang the dirge of the telegram. The sentiment weighed heavily on me too, and I made a visit to several post offices in the city where I live, wondering how long more they would be around.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/a-nostalgic-take-on-the-persevering-post-office/article5973679.ece

Meeting of the Screening Committee for consideration of MACP cases for Drivers in Odisha Postal Circle .

The Screening Committee for consideration of MACP cases for Drivers in Odisha Postal Circle will meet on 06.05.2014 at 11.00 hours at Circle Office.

HSG-I OFFICIATING PERIOD SHOULD BE COUNTED FOR PAY FIXATION & PENSIONARY BENEFITS

 ONE MORE JUDGEMENT FROM CAT CHENNAI.. APPEAL FILED BY DEPARTMENT DISMISSED BY MADRAS HIGH COURT.

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P3 CHQ writes to Directorate demanding additional work force for HOs

Confederation writes MOF regarding enhanced HRA

7TH CPC – LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF MEMORANDUM FIXED AS 30TH JUNE 2014 – LETTER FROM PAY COMMISSION TO SECRETARY GENERAL, NFPE

Revision of Ceiling Rates for various Coronary Stents / Angioplasty & Angioplasty with Balloon for CGHS/CS (MA) beneficiaries.

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Clarification on 'Headquarter and Home Town are same station' for the purpose of LTC - CGDA

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Signed Minutes of the Cadre Restructuring Meeting

 

DEPARTMENTALISATION OF GRAMIN DAK SEVAKS (GDS) AND INCLUSION OF GDS UNDER 7TH CENTRAL PAY COMMISSION

FIRST HEARING OF THE COURT CASE ON 7TH MAY 2014HON’BLE DELHI HIGH COURT ISSUED NOTICE TO THE GOVERNMENT AND DEPARTMENT OF POSTS.

 

 

Instruction for booking of BNPL Parcel

 

 

 

MAY DAY GREETINGS TO ALL

THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED

EDITORIAL - POSTAL CRUSADER

MAY DAY MANIFESTO

The voice, which was strangulated and silenced long long ago in the distant city of Chicago, is now echoing in the hearts and throats of millions of workers and common people across the continents, manifesting the burning desire to fight for the rights. The struggle for ‘working hours’, which shook the world, transcended and transformed into a symbol of struggle for establishment of egalitarian society and fighting spirit of working class across the nations. May Day beckons us to get inspired and imbibe that spirit of struggle and sacrifice!

The natural resources, the collective property of mankind, are being swallowed by the capitalists with the aid and abetment of Ruling Class in the guise of Globalization and Economic development. They have engulfed the permanent jobs and are extracting the work from the manual labour in the name of Contractorisation and casualization at dead cheap rates. The sweat of farmers and workers has no value in the eyes of these exploiters. The Gobble’s campaign that there is no substitute for Capitalism has had its great ill effect on the workers and employees!  Parallel campaign that the Socialism has failed and that it is not visible even in the distant vicinity is being thrust into the psyche of the general public.

We have to recapitulate the famous verses of Sri Sri, the great telgu poet of this century, which are to be engraved in ebony permanently.  “The Kingdoms built on earth, the artificial Statutes enacted by the Monarchs and by the egoistic, have crumbled like a palace of playing cards, with the tsunami of forces of working class, far and near” This reminds every one that any system which is inimical and exploitative is bound to crash and collapse.

The motive and end of Capital is to earn profit. The capitalism will never hesitate to denude the Mother Earth and green nature for the sake of profit. The un-quenching greed of capitalists for profit has become hazardous to the environment resulting in the pollution of air and water bodies. The global –warming is causing disorders in environment and, in effect, posing danger to the very existence of mankind. The changes in the environment due to pollution are pushing the agriculture and the farmers into catastrophe.

The accumulation of wealth in a few hands, the growth of corporate sector and the fall in the purchasing capacity of the workers and employees are the indication of the growing unrest and degradation of the society. Education and medical facilities are unreachable to the common man. A place to dwell in is still a distant dream to so many employees and workers.

   At this juncture, the Central Government employees should discharge their duty with full awareness and understanding. To regain the lost pension right, to retain the health facilities, to ensure the periodical wage revision for every five years, to get the DA merger, to achieve status to the Grameen Dak Sevaks, etc., the Central Government employees have no other alternative but to tread the path of struggle in the coming days on the face of adversarial political and economic policies.

Oppose the neo-liberal economic policies, which intend to privatize every Sector and mortgage the future of employees and common people to the Capitalists. As enlightened sections of the society we have to pin down and expose the deceit perpetrated on the people and Working Class in the name of Globalization and Development.  With all the unity, awareness and conscientiousness, we the Central Government employees, should resist and stop these anti-employee and anti-people policies. Let’s take pledge on this May Day to strive hard for Better life and brighter tomorrow for all and to demand our rightful share as a stakeholder in the process of development, defeating the nefarious designs of the protagonists of neo-liberal economic policies.