Article Published in
November, 2013 issue of “Postal Life”,
the monthly journal of
AIPEU, Postman & Gr. D ( CHQ ), New Delhi
Written By :Bruhaspati Samal
Secretary, AIPEU, Gr.-C,
Bhubaneswar
Oh
! Thanks a lot. At last, I could be able
to get my Aadhaar Card after a period of 7 months. Greeting the Postman when
Mr. Hussain wanted to share his feelings, he became surprised to notice the
Postman going out of his premises hurriedly in the bicycle with a disturbed
mood.
Hello
Dear ! Mr. Hussain called back the
Postman – “Are you in a hurry?”
“Yes
Sir.” – replied the Postman.
“I see today you are also late. But
why? – Asked Mr. Hussain.
With
a heavy heart and pensive mood, the Postman replied, “Though our office starts
at 9 AM, we started working in the computer 2 hours late today due to
load-shading. Since the UPS is not under AMC nobody is attending for repairing
in spite of several correspondences and we are working on direct current
supply. But unfortunately, being in a sub-urban area, there is frequent power
cuts/load shading. To overcome the difficulty though we have been supplied with
a kerosene generator, we are unable to collect kerosene since, as you know, the
same is distributed under PDS through ration card. It is too difficult on the
part of the Postmaster to collect kerosene from the open market and make the
generator operational. Actually, it is not understood why my Department
considered supply of kerosene generators. On the contrary, today my office has
received nearly 6000 accountable and ordinary articles including 3500 Aadhaar
Cards and my share comes to nearly 600 letters including 450 Aadhaar Cards
which are required to be delivered door to door covering a distance of nearly
15 KMs in my beat today positively. Another painful fact is that I have been
recruited as a Postman 15 years back without any basic computer knowledge and
now ordered for making data entry of all accountable mails of my beat in the
system. Though I have gathered some working knowledge, I have not yet been
given proper training for suitable duration enabling me for faster entry.
Contradictorily, there is no separate system available for the delivery branch
and I have to wait for my turn to come in the single node which has resulted in
late feeding of data and thus late beat-out” – the Postman replied.
“But
can you deliver all the mails today itself in a fare and square manner ?” -
Asked Mr. Hussain.
“I will try my best since there is no
other option left for me, Sir” – replied the Postman. “The Department has fixed
2 minutes for delivering an Aadhaar Card booked under Speed Post, 0.72 minute
for an unregistered mail, 0.42 minute for delivering an unregistered mail in a
multi-storied building, 10 minutes for moving a kilometer on a bicycle and 19
minutes per Km on foot and 20 minutes to give return. Thus excluding my moving
time in the beat, lunch hour and return time, I will get hardly 4 hours 30
minutes to work and suspending all other jobs, if I concentrate on delivering
the Aadhaar Cards only, it will take at least 3 days to finish which is known
to all my bosses. In the circumstances, I don’t know the rush of mails during
the next 3/4 days and if this trend continues, perhaps to bring normalcy with
complete delivery, I have to take pain for weeks together. And God knows what
will be my position with such continuous pain to return back to normal delivery
condition.”
“Ya, I do realize. But hasn’t your
Department fixed the number of houses to be visited and articles to be
delivered in a day ?” – enquired Mr. Hussain
“What shall I tell you, Sir” – the
Post man narrated. “The number of articles to be delivered and houses to be visited during the duty of eight
hours has no where been laid down causing extreme harassment not only to
me but to all the delivery staff. At present the door to door beat measurement
system adopted by the department is not only unsatisfactory but also incorrect
as neither any scientific device like foot meter nor cyclo-meter is used to
assess the actual length of beat. Presently the city is flooded with
apartments and multi-storied buildings and the norm for delivering an article
in a multi-storied building has been fixed to 0.42 minutes for ordinary mails
and 1.80 minutes for accountable mails which is practically impossible. Though
the flat owners of a multi-storied buildings are required to install letter boxes
in the ground floor which will make easier delivery of ordinary mails and save
time, nobody is paying proper attention in spite of several requests. We have to wait for minutes together before
the security guards of an apartment and move on foot from floor to floor which
has not been considered to fix the standard delivery norms of articles. Though
my leaders are continuously demanding to fix such norms, revise the existing
norms to a practicable one and adopt scientific method of measuring the beat
length in the interest of delivery efficiency and rationalization of workload
of postmen staff as well, nobody is paying proper attention to it. Adding salt
to injury, instead of filling in the vacant posts, now a drive is being
undertaken by the Department to abolish such posts showing less workload
arrived on wrong calculations. ”
Oh God ! You are not bonded labourers
of the British era. Why your Department is knowingly trying to avoid human
limitations? Is there any plan to be customer friendly grossly ignoring the
grass-root reality? – asked Mr. Hussain.
The
Postman replied, “ You might be aware that to transform India Post into a
vibrant and responsive organization , the Quality Improvement Project
called Project Arrow undertaken in April
2008 through a Pilot in 50 Post Offices of 10 postal circles entailing
comprehensive improvement of the Core Operations of Post Offices as well as the ambience has now spread over
18612 post offices. Among the core activities delivery of all kinds of mails
and payment of money orders on the day of receipt are the important
components. For effective and smooth
implementation of the concept, a web-based monitoring mechanism (through Data
Extraction Tool) has been devised to collect data from the field units directly
from the server without any manual intervention. The data analysis is presented
to all the Chief Postmasters General of 22 Postal Circles through a video-conference
every fortnight (earlier every week). Data on all Key Performance indicators
(KPls) is minutely scrutinized and gaps in implementation and remedial measures
thereto are discussed in the video-conference. Dedicated Programme Offices have
been set up at the Headquarter level and at all 22 Circle Headquarters. Data
exchange from Post Offices and all communications with Circle Programme Offices
are through e-mail only. Thus, we have been seriously pressurized to effect
cent percent delivery of all mails on the day of receipt.”
“Oh!
To take the bull by the horns. But since it is quite impossible today on your
part, what alternatives do you have today ?” – asked Mr. Hussain.
With
much hesitation, the Postman replied, “Sir, the vacant posts are not filled in
and in most of the cases the delivery works are being managed through outsiders
who don’t know about the area. In case of short term vacancies like leave etc.,
no clear order to manage the delivery works is seen to be issued by the
authorities. Most of the times we are being ordered to work for another staff
on meager overtime allowance not revised since years and not paid
regularly/timely. The total
responsibility is being shouldered by the poor Postmaster. The Gramin Dak Sewaks are the most exploited
group in this regard without being paid with the Combined Duty Allowance on the
plea of some reasons or other. The admissible TRCA either of the GDS working against the departmental
vacancies especially in the vacant post of Postman or his substitute is not
being sanctioned in time which is highly discouraging and affecting the
efficiency of the delivery staff.
Another important fact to note that most of these Aadhar Cards including
corporate mails like Cheque Books under CTS-2010 despatched by banks, premium
notices issued by insurance companies and such other mails bear incomplete
address in most of the cases and old address in many cases preventing smooth
and correct delivery on the day of
receipt. These mails might have been returned on the same day to the sender,
but we have been told to keep these articles for seven days under trial which
is affecting our tolerance limit (0% to 5 %) fixed now a days. Without giving
any written order, we have been suggested to show cent per cent delivery in
computer for today’s receipt and clear delivery phase wise as early as
possible.”
“But
it will certainly confuse a customer to see his letter delivered under trace
and track system when it is practically not delivered and kept deposited in the
Post Office. Really, it is a gross
irregularity” – Mr. Hussain was surprised.
“That’s
happening, Sir”. – stated the Postman.
“In such cases, politely approaching our esteemed customers with every humble
submission and explaining our compulsions and limitations also, we are
delivering the articles. I’m sorry to say that though most of our customers do
realize the problem, many complaints are being registered in the post offices
for which the Department is issuing continuous instructions
to ensure update delivery information correctly and not to upload any
information without actually delivering the letter. Adopting a very cut and dry
method, while verbal instructions are issued without any record to save the
skin, written orders are issued for initiating disciplinary action. We are just
a cat’s paw. I am too late today. Excuse me, Sir. Let me go.”
The Postman left Mr.
Hussain’s house leaving him in a thoughtful mood.
Alas! How painful !
All the delivery staffs of the Post Office are in between the devil and the
deep sea – groaned Mr. Hussain and asked himself many questions.
-
Why the Department of
Posts is not realizing the real delivery pain and not taking all the issues
narrated by the Postman seriously for the benefit of both the employees and the
customers as well.?
-
Why the delivery norms
practically feasible aren't fixed and vacant posts aren't filled in?
-
How can cent percent
delivery on the day of receipt be possible without man and machine?
-
Is there no real
relief from such continuous pain in delivery?
*****
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