Gramin Dak Sevaks’ strike continues for 15th day, rural postal service remain affected

Gramin Dak Sevaks’ strike continues for 15th day, rural postal service remain affected

The strike called by Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS) entered into 15th day Monday with the Central government still not paying any heed to their demands. Consequences are that, the postal service in rural parts of the country has been adversely affected and the citizens are been deprived of their basic needs like pension, passport and other important documents.

Pune based Right to Information (RTI) activist Sanjay Shirodkar says, “This is a grave issue and only the Central government is responsible for the irreparable loss caused to people in rural areas. Citizens are unable to get their passports, Aadhaar, bank documents, scholarships through the postal service and are at the receiving end because of inaction of the government.”

Various unions like the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE), All India Postal Employees Union (AIPEU), All India Gramin Dak Sevaks Union (AIGDSU), National Union for Gramin Dak Sevaks (NUGDS) are protesting for the implementation of recommendations of Kamlesh Chandra Committee report 2016. 

Moneylife tried contacting the officials of India Post on this issue but were unable to seek any response from either of the few office bearers including Additional Post Master General, Director Postal Services at Pune.

The Kamlesh Chandra Committee report recommends for an increase in minimum wages of the rural postal employees (GDS) with an annual increase at rate of 3%, 6 months’ maternity leave for women GDS, leave accumulation and encashment facility of 180 days and other such benefits. 

On 1 June 2018, the dak sevaks had organised a protest march to Sanchar Bhawan (Ministry of Communications) on Parliament Street in Delhi. However, the efforts have yielded no results.

The legal status of the Gramin Dak Sevaks held by Supreme Court in 1977 is of the extra departmental agents who are governed by non-statutory rules called the Gramin Dak Sevaks (Conduct & Engagement) Rules, 2011. 
The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers (CCGEW) from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh unit have called for a national convention on 10th June 2018 at Hyderabad.