Historic Rally conducted by postal employees in Bhubaneswar on 12.04.2015 in protest against proposed corporatization of India Post

For effective mobilization of rank and file for successful conductance of the Indefinite Strike call given by the Central Postal Joint Council of Action comprising National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE), Federation of National Postal Organizations (FNPO), All India Postal Employees Union, Gramin Dak Sewak (NFPE) and National Union of Gramin Dak Sewaks from 6^th May, 2015, a grand General Body Meeting was organized by Com. Bruhaspati Samal, Secretary, AIPEU, Gr.-C, Bhubaneswar and Convener, Divisional Postal Joint Council of Action, Bhubaneswar at Odisha Association for the Blind (Near Big Bazar), Kharvelnagar, Bhubaneswar – 751 001 on 12.04.2015 (Sunday)  under the president-ship of Com. Pramod Kumar Pattnaik, President, All India Postal Employees, Union.

Inaugurating the meeting,  Com. Janardan Pati, Vice-President, CITU, Odisha strongly criticized the anti-workers/anti-employees/anti-people policies of the present Govt. Postal Department is not the only organization that suffers. The existence of each and every Govt. organization is now at stake. He appealed the general public to be conscious about the deep rooted conspiracy between the private operators and the politicians in power which has resulted so many Govt. organization to go on loss. BSNL is the best example. Telecom was a Govt. Department with Rs.10000 crores profit per annum. It was first corporatized with categorical and unambiguous assurances to the employees. But now situation has become such that BSNL employees are deprived of annual bonus, LTC and Medical Bill reimbursement etc. for last five years and the erstwhile Telecom after being corporatized is making a loss of Rs.10000 crores per annum. Now the present Govt. is planning either to privatize it or to close down. As a result, 2.25 lakh BSNL employees, both executive and non-executive are going on a country-wide strike on April 21-22, 2015. The postal employees should learn a lesson from the corporatization policy of the Govt. taking BSNL as an example and be ready for a do or die battle to save the Department of Posts.

Addressing the meeting as Chief Speaker, Com. T Satyanarayan, General Secretary, All India Postal Accounts Association cautioned the NDA Govt. to stay away from the hidden agenda of corporatizing India Post failing which 5 lakh postal employees working 1 55 000 post office all over India will be compelled to adopt agitational path with Indefinite strike from 06.05.2015 demanding “No corporatization of India Post” at the top of the list. Among other demands, inclusion of GDS under the purview of 7^th CPC and grant of Civil Servant status, Merger of 100% D A with Pay from 01.01.2014, Grant of Interim Relief ( 25% of Pay ) from 01.01.2014, Scrapping up of New Pension Scheme, Removal of 5% cap on Compassionate appointment, Filling up all vacant posts, Implementation of Cadre Restructuring proposal, Allotment of  sufficient funds for sanction of all pending bills and repairing of buildings/quarters and  to revise the Postmen/MG/MTS Rules stopping open market recruitment are the major pending issues.

Among other, the meeting was also addressed by Com. R C Mishra, Circle Secretary, All India Postal Employees Union, Group-C, Odisha, Com. Dusmant Sethi, Circle Secretary, All India Postal RMS & MMS EU, Gr.-C, Com. Manoranjan Sarangi, Asst. Circle Secretary, NAPE, Gr.-C, Odisha(FNPO) and Com. B D Senapati, Circle Secretary, All India Postal Accounts Employees Association, Odisha, Com. Sudhir Swain, Divisional Secretary, All India Postal Employees Union, Postman & MTS, Com. Ghanashyama Panda, Divisional Secretary, All India Postal Employees Union GDS(NFPE), Bhubaneswar Divisional branch and Com. R K Senapati from AIPAOEU, Odisha Circle.

A mass rally was organized from Blind Association to Master Canteen Square at 3 PM and the programme was ended with a long human chain of hundreds of  postal employees at Master Canteen Square, Bhubaneswar with banners, flags and placards in protest against the proposed corporatization of India Post.  All the above leaders including Com. T Satyanarayan, General Secretary, AIPAEA participated in the mass rally. The capital city of Bhubaneswar witnessed the anger of the postal employees first time in the street in protest against the proposed corporatization of India Post. The postal employees appealed the common citizen of India to extend their cooperation to save this old and vast organization which is still the biggest postal network in the world.  

The meeting and rally were successfully managed by Com. Anil Kumar Mohanty, Com. Lingaraj Sahoo, Com. Dipti Ranjan Mohanty, Com. B N Mohapatra, Com. A K Panda, Com. Ajaya Ku. Barik, Com. Dillip Kumar Mohanty, Com. Mrutunjay Uttaray with active participation of casual workers, MTS, Postman and P As. We would like to give special thanks to Com. Sukhalal Tudu, Treasurer and Com. Radha Krushna Pradhan, Asst. Secretary of AIPEU, Group-C, Bhubaneswar Division who captured the whole programme in their cameras.

While the Divisional JCA expresses its sincere obligation before all the participants who made the programme successful, regrets for those unfortunate members who missed such a historic occasion either intentionally or under any compelling situation.

It is our sincere appeal to all those comrades who intentionally avoided such programmes to remain active in future since very hard days are coming. We have to act seriously to resist the Govt. from the move of corporatizing of India Post.

 

= B. SAMAL =

Secretary, AIPEU, Gr.-C &

Convener, Divisional JCA

Bhubaneswar