High-handedness of outside authorities on India Post and its employees – Protest regarding.

Dear Comrades,

With arrest of one official of Utkal University MDG on 23.06.2012 by RPF, Bhubaneswar on alleged malpractice of Tatkal railway tickets in the PRS counter, this Division has now faced two such incidents continuously, first being the case of BJB Nagar S O issue of the high-handedness of outside authorities on India Post and its employees. It is much regretted to say that without prior sanction of our competent authority, outside authorities are in practice of entering our premises/offices and taking our officials to their custody.

Under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, it is necessary for the prosecuting authority to have the previous sanction of the appropriate administrative authority for launching prosecution against a public servant. The sanction for prosecution of any person, who is or was a Judge or Magistrate or a public servant not removable from his office save by or with the sanction of the Government, is also necessary, under section 197(1) of the code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, if he is accused of any offence alleged to have been committed by him while acting or purporting to act in the discharge of official duty.

Sub-section (2) of section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 further provides that where for any reason whatsoever any doubt arises as to whose previous sanction should be obtained under sub-section (1), the sanction shall be given by the authority which would have been competent to remove the public servant from his office at the time when the offence was alleged to have been committed.

If the prior sanction of the competent authority is not obtained, the trial would be ab initio void and if commenced will have to be set aside. A fresh prosecution would be necessary after a proper sanction has been obtained and a charge-sheet against the accused will need to be filed afresh for his trial for offence covered by the sanction.

But we are sorry to note that in both the incidents happened in Bhubaneswar Division, we find serious violation of the above acts and rules ( enunciated in Chapter VII of Vigilance Manual) by the outside authorities taking our officials into task. We apprehend, this may be a trend in future that any outside authority with whom the Department has made an agreement to run the former’s business through the vast network of India Post may at any time rush to any post office and behave with the staff members at his sweet will neither informing our authorities nor obtaining prior sanction as required under rules. Time will come when SBI, NABARAD, HDFC Bank, WUFC, HMT, Life Insurance and Mutual Fund companies etc. whose products and services are handled by India Post will raid post offices and handover our employees to police custody. Thus, the security of the staff members has now been a question in India Post.

With serious resentment on such deliberate violation of the agreement between India Post and Indian Railway by the RPF, Bhubaneswar and violation to above acts / rules, we have registered our reaction before the Divisional administration and requested our Circle Union and CHQ for similar actions before appropriate authorities. While the actions taken by our Circle Union and CHQ are not known to us, we are happy that our Divisional administration has taken a strong step in protesting such irregular action of the railway authorities. With sincere thanks to the SSPOs, Bhubaneswar, we would like to reproduce Divisional Office letter written to DRM, ECoR, Khurda Road Division.

Government of India

Department of Posts

Office of the Senior Superintendent of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar Division, Bhubaneswar-751009

 No. F-VII/98/2012,                                                                                                                 Dated at Bhubaneswar the 25.06.2012

 To

            The Divisional Railway Manager

            East Coast Railway, Khurda Road Division

            At/Po : Jatani, Dist : Khurda

Sub :    Prosecution of Sri Malay Ranjan Pati, Postal Asst., Utkal University MDG on alleged malpractice in PRS counter on 23.06.2012.

Sir,

            I would like to bring your kind notice that the India Post PRS counter (computerized passenger reservation system) was opened at Utkal University Mukhya Dak Ghar, Bhubaneswar with an agreement signed on 4^th January, 2011 by the senior officers of both the Department of Indian Railways and India Post. Accordingly, Sri Malay Ranjan Pati, Postal Asst., Utkal University MDG was entrusted the duty of PRS counter as being imparted with necessary training for the same.

                On 23.06.2012, a joint team consisting of CIB / RPF / KUR and RPF Post, Bhubaneswar raided the Utkal University MDG at about 08.00 AM and finding some irregularity at the PRS counter, they took the Postal Asst. Sri Pati into their custody and arrested him under section 179 of Railway Act. Due to arrest and taking into custody of the Postal Asst., the Post Office has suffered a lot in fulfilling the need of the customers of the Department since Sri Pati was assigned with other Postal work in addition to the duty of PRS. The team also did not feel to intimate the situation on the very day of incident to the undersigned, who is the competent authority of the alleged official.   It is reliably learnt that the RPF had earlier attempted two times to nab the official, but had failed due to insufficient evidence. Now the question is, if the RPF authority could have gathered so much information about malpractice at PRS counter, Utkal University MDG, they must have apprised their higher authority and since the system of PRS is a joint venture by both the Department, then the Railway authority would have no hesitation to intimate the fact to the higher authority of the Department of Posts or to the undersigned so that a remedial / preventive action could have been taken much earlier by this Department for eliminating the present situation. Even before arresting the official and taking him into custody the undersigned was not informed and kept in darkness of the entire scenario. Prior arrangement to manage the work of the absentee could not be made also. Due to such motivated action of the RPF authority without giving prior information and without taking the Postal authorities into confidence, the department not only loose its image before the public but also put into the crisis of shortage of staff to manage the PRS counter and the postal business attached to the branch. Now as per the rule of the govt. the official may be put into suspension causing unnecessary payment of subsistence allowance without extracting any work from him. Therefore, was it not wise to inform the authorities of the Dept of posts about the matter when it came to the notice of the RPF/Railway authorities before taking the recourse of arresting the official with proof. Had this been done the unwarranted situation like this could have been averted by not putting any harm to both the departments. By such action of the RPF/Railway authority, the very provisions made in Para – 16.5 of agreement on PRS at Utkal University Mukhya Dak Ghar signed by both the Department on 4^th January, 2011 is violated.

 Therefore, it is requested to take stock of the situation and issue appropriate instruction to the concerned authorities as deemed proper at the earliest.

                       

Yours faithfully

(A.K.Nayak)

Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar   Division

Bhubaneswar-751009

Copy to :

1.         Senior Divisional Security Commandant (RPF), East Coast Railway, Khurda Road Division, At/Po : Jatani, Dist : Khurda for favour of kind information and immediate necessary action.

2.         The Asst. Postmaster General (Vig), O/o the Chief Postmaster General, Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar-751001 for information and necessary action.

3.         The Asst. Director (BD), O/o the Chief Postmaster General, Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar-751001 for information and necessary action.

(A.K.Nayak)

Sr. Supdt. of Post Offices

Bhubaneswar   Division

Bhubaneswar-751009