Department of Posts: June 2016

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Pension Adalat on June 20

The Department of Posts will conduct regional-level Pension Adalat at the office of the Postmaster General, Central Region, at the Head Post Office complex in Tiruchi at 3 p.m. on June 20.

Only those cases which had been taken up with divisions or units and where the pensioner is not satisfied with the response from the divisional level could be brought to the adalat. No fresh case would be entertained.

Grievances relating to delay or non-settlement of pension benefits in respect of officials retired from the Department of Posts, grievances pertaining to pension and family pension through post offices in respect of retired officials of other departments such as Railway and Telecom will alone be entertained.

Grievances should be sent to S.Sivasankaran, Senior Accounts Officer, Office of the Postmaster General, Central region, Tiruchi-620001 before June 10.

The grievances should be sent only through ordinary or registered post and those sent through private couriers will not be accepted. The covers should be clearly superscribed as Pension Adalat – June 2016, a press release from Suvendu Kumar Swain, Postmaster General, Central Region (Tamil Nadu), Tiruchi, said.

The Hindu

Now, postboxes on rent for 150/year

CHENNAI: To popularise the use of postboxes among IT employees, India Post, in association with Nasscom, will on June 10 launch an 'Own Your Post Box' scheme for 150 per year at the Tidel Park post office.

Postmaster general for Chennai City Region Mervin Alexander said India Post is launching the scheme since many IT companies refuse to accept letters and parcels for their employees. Hundreds of letters and articles sent by speed post to IT companies in are being returned daily as companies do not have the means to distribute the items to staff, he noted.

Postboxes are already available on rent in certain post offices for fully pre-paid unregistered mail, like inland letter cards, post cards, aerogrammes, newspapers and books but there is little awareness about this. The tie-up with Nasscom is expected to increase the number of users.

Nasscom senior director K Purushottam said, "This will enable IT pros to use India Post services effectively."

The scheme will also boost the safety of women employees, said Alexander. "Some postmen are not given any respect by IT companies and return without delivering letters. We urge all employees, especially women, to make use the scheme," he said

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Over 3.2 mn central govt employees to go on strike from 11 July

More than 3.2 million employees of the central government would go on indefinite strike beginning 11 July protesting what they call “retrograde and negative” recommendations of the seventh central pay commission.

National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) General Secretary M Raghavaiah -- who is also the Chairman of the National Joint Council for Action for all central government employees – said the government’s response to the charter of demands submitted by the trade unions in December 2015 was disappointing and casual.

“Consequently, the organizations of the central government employees – Railways, Defence, Postal, Income Tax, Central Customs & Excise etc – whose number is over 32 lakh, have taken unanimous decision on 3 June 2016 to go on indefinite strike from 11 July 2016,” NFIR said in a statement.

The rail trade union and its affiliate organizations, which represent more than 90 per cent of the railways 1.3 million workers, have also decided to serve strike notice on the General Managers of various railway zones and production units on 9 June in support of the charter of demands.

NFIR was compelled to decide to serve the strike notice, even as it was keen for a negotiated settlement, due to the “procrastination of matters” by the government, NFIR Press Secretary Somnath malik said. He added the pay panel’s recommendations are required to be modified through settlement with employees’ federations in order to maintain industrial relations.

The trade unions’ demands include rejecting all the “retrograde” recommendations of the seventh pay commission; improving minimum wage to Rs 26,000; scrapping the New Pension Scheme; Scrap the recommendations of the Bibek Debroy committee for modernization of Indian Railways; recalling the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) notification of issued in August 2014 in construction, operation and maintenance of railways.

The unions have also demanded the government should scrap all agreements entered into with foreign companies as well as national companies which are detrimental to the interests of railways; scrap the “anti-worker” amendments made in the labour laws; and ensure pay parity in pay structure and promotional scope for all workers in the central ministries.