National Union of Gramin Dak Sevaks
Andhra Pradesh Circle,Hyderabad-1
Web : nugdsap.blogspot.com
The following resolutions are adopted from NUGDS AP Circle
in the 15th AIC of NUGDS :
1. This is regarding the demands of the NUGDS Union for
inclusion of the category of GDS within the purview of 7Th CPC :
One behalf of the NUGDS Union in the DOP,
we are submitting here with a memorandum in respect of the GDS in DOP.
Grameen Dak Sevaks are a set of employees of the lowest
level in the department of posts coming to 2,70,000 in the whole country. Whenever
the pay structure and other service conditions of Central Government Employees
are reviewed by Central Pay Commissions, a committee is employed to exam the
wage structure and service conditions of GDS also. Report of the committee is
also considered along with Central Pay Commission of GDS also. Report of the
committee is also considered along with Central Pay Commissions report and both
are implemented at one time which was the usual practice in the past. Report of
the 7th CPC is understood to have been more or less finalized and it
is going to be submitted in November 2015.
GDS is a neglected sector since 1929
and has no consideration in last 5 enquiry committees, through 4Th
committee i.e, headed by Justice Chandrajit Sing Talwar considered all
legitimate demands of GDS in his report ,but not accepted by the Govt. up to 90%
of the report . As such the living conditions of GDS remained unchanged and
hence this memorandum.
The GDS are a distinct category of
employees of the DOP and numbers around 2.7 lakhs. They run the rural post
office called Branch Post office. They are Extra Department Employees of the
DOP and do not come under the purview of CCS (CCA) Rules 1965 or CCS (pension)
Rules 1972. They are not paid salary but
are given Time Related Continuity Allowances as their emoluments of minimum
Rs.2295+DA and max.4575+DA . (copy enclosed).They work for 3-5 hrs only (on
which their TRCA depends) (copy enclosed).
Due to the adoption of modern
technology in the services by the DOP, there is no considerable difference
between the work attended by the full time department staff and GDS. As per
2011 conduct & Engagement Rules of GDS , their engagement must be done by
the following terms of engagement(copy enclosed).
Rule
No:1. A sevak shall not be required to perform duty
beyond a maximum period of 5 hrs in a day.
But in the present
scenario,90% of the GDS particularly GDSBPM’S performing their duties from 5 to
12 hrs as per their work load points assessment
and computation of points into working hours.
Rule
No:2. A sevak shall not be retained beyond 65 years
of age.
GDS are not paid any pension. Even after completionof 47 years of long
service they are not eligible for any retirement benefits but only being paid
Rs.40,000 below as severance amount (SDBS) and nearly 60,000
rupees as ex-gratia at the time of their discharge which is the lowest when compared to any other
public/private sector employees.
In majority of the
circle of the DOP in the country the SSP payments to old age, widow disabled
persons are disbursed through
B.O’s by means of SB a/c , money orders, Bio-metric machines etc people who
attained the age of 65 years, received
old age pension Rs.1000/- from state Govt. through B.O’s .The old age pension facility which
applicable to common man is not availed by the GDS employees because State Govt.
treated GDS as central Govt. employees.
This lead to forgo of weaker section welfare schemes like while ration Card, Health re imbursement,
Housing Schemes and Children fee re - imbursement etc.
Rule
No:3. At the time of engagement to the GDS post,
it is mandatory that they have an alternative means of livelihood are therefore, not to
be dependent on the Department of Posts
for their livelihood.
But practically there
is no other source of income can be provided for these workers either by public
or by Government. Rural
India mainly based on agriculture and the job opportunities are for only
agricultural labour. These officials
working continuously or on split cannot provide their time for agriculture
during day time i.e the time for
agriculture. Now a days the Department of Posts widening its activities and
these GDS workers have no time to
go for any other source of income.
Due to performing duties like MGNREES, SSP, Sukanya , RPLI and other so many BD products
of the DOP the entire day time nearly 10 to 12 hrs come under
B.O. work. So that there is no way to other sources of income besides the
allowances paid or to be paid by the govt. of India for adequate means of
livelihood for himself and his family.
Rulr No:6.
A sevak shall not
claim to be at par with the central govt.emp.
But 4th
CPC has categorically stated in para 1.10 that the expression of “central govt.
emp.” has not been defined in the constitution or any other aw.
Rule No:8. Post office shall be located in the accommodation
to be provided by GDSBPM suitable use as post office premises.
As per this Rule, B.O is
to be accommodated by the GDS official himself for which an amount of Rs.100 is
being paid to him/her as O.M.A where as he had been paying Rs.1000 to 1500 towards
B.O rent .Majority amoun from the pay & allowances is being spent for their
office rents by the GDSBPM’S.
Therefore the service
unions FNPO and NFPE representing 95% of the total employees had been demanding
to include the case of examining the wages structure and other conditions of
GDS also to the 7th CPC purview. On this issue notice served to go
on indefinite strike from 6th May 2015 and had discussion with
Postal Services Board on 30.04.2015. Secretary Generals of the service unions
had discussion on 05.05.2015 with the Minster for Communications & IT Shri. Ravi Shankar prasad Jee who had promised
to give the issues of GDS to 7th Central Pay Commission. The strike
proposed to start postponed in view of this promise.
But to our utter
disappointment, it is now understood that Finance Ministry again rejected the
case of GDS inclusion in 7th CPC. Department of Posts is taking
action to form Bureaucratic Committee under chairmanship of a retired member of
Postal Board.
In view of the above
,the demands of GDS employees must be constitution of a committee which is tri partitioning
In nature either it is a 7th CPC ,if not the committee headed by a
Adjudicator probably a Sitting Judge –Government of India –Unions &and
individuals who are the parties interested and involved in the structure. Other
wise the committee which are proposed to be constituted will not have any
powers of Judiciary nature to address the grievance of GDS employees about
their status and other benefits of a Government employee. Other wise this
system will continue like the for another decades to come
2.GDS PROMOTIONS : GDS to Group D/MTS :
Unlike
the full regular employees, there are no vertical promotions to the GDS system.
The present system of filling of 25% of posts of Group D/MTS by the outsiders
with open market must be abolished and this quota may also be given preference
to GDS.
GDS to Postmen :
50% of postmen
vacancies are filed up from the cadre of Group ‘D’ and the remaining 50% by direct
recruitment quota is reserved for GDS. Out of direct recruitment quota 25% are
filled on merit and remaining 25% are to be filled on seniority cum fitness
basis. This was subsequently amended as 50% to MTS and 50% to GDS on
examination basis. It was further modified by notification dated 28.6.2012 as
unfilled vacancies will be filled up with outsiders with examination. Due to
this the GDS lost their opportunity and deprived off their benefit of promotion
on seniority basis. An official for his not being qualified in the examination
has to lost his seniority also for giving his place to outsiders. As such we
suggest the seniority quota promotion to GDS for promotion to postmen which was
earlier enjoyed may be restored at least to the extent of unfilled vacancies in
examination cited above ignoring the percentage left unfilled. The same system
may be continued. But the minimum educational qualification must be insisted
for those who came on merit and should not be insisted on those who came by
seniority. The present service restriction of 5 years should be reduced to 3
years
We demand previous provision of 25 % GDS to Postmen on seniority cum
selection.
GDS to Postal
Assistant :
The Grameen Dak Sevaks are permitted to be inducted into the clerical cadre
against the unfilled vacancies in the
LGO examination. Up to 2002, a concession of 10% of marks is given to the GD
Sevaks compared to the last recruitment candidate. Now the present system of
recruitment of GDS to the cadre of postal assistant has become an eyewash
programme as practically no GD Sevak was promoted to the cadre of Postal
Assistant.
As GDS appearing for Postal Assistants is just same to postal assistant
appearing for IPO examination, the maximum age for appearing for PA examination
may be 40 years with due relaxation to SC/ST/OBC ignoring number of chances
that he can avail. As several computer training’ s are imparted in the
Department qualification in Data Entry Test may be ignored to induct these
Rural Postal Employees as Postal Assistants. The said examination may be to
know the computer literacy of the candidate for giving him suitable computer
training may be designed
It is only in the
Postal Department that 50% of the clerical vacancies are earmarked for
Departmental staff and it is too much as the Postal LGOs happen to be less than
1 lakh while GDS happen to be about 2.5 lakhs. We are not demanding any
concession in Educational Qualifications but 10% of the Departmental quota
(which more often than not ever filled up) must be reserved for GDS with
minimum qualification must be allowed to appear in a competitive examination
without reference to direct recruitment and the guaranteed 10% must be filled
from the GDS employees.
As per present
recruitment rules 2015 the vacancies which were remained unfilled in the LGO
examination must be carry forward to GDS. But in the present scenario there are
no unfilled vacancies of LGO.
We demand 10%quota
from GDS to Postal Assistant.
3. GDS Regularization:
Out of 1,39,093
rural Post offices the Branch offices are 1,29,378.Besides allowing dep/with of
SB,RD,RPLI,TD the following schemes are
taken by the Department of Posts out of
which 93%of the said work is being done by present GDS BO’S.
- MGNREGS:
Starting with
Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle in the year 2005,the scheme of disbursement of
MGNREGA wages through post offices accounts has been made operational in the
entire country ,with exception of Delhi Postal Circle and Jammu &Kashmir
Postal Circle. During the period April’2014 to December 2014 Rs.61478.71
million have been disbursed through 65.3 million accounts.
- Social Security Pensions:
The Pension Scheme
of National Social Assistant Programme (NSAP) of the Ministry of Rural Development
are as under :
1. Indira Gandhi
National Old Age Pension
2. Indira Gandhi
National Widow Pension Scheme
3. Indira Gandhi
National Disability Pension Scheme
These Pension
payments for pension schemes are being effected either through Money Orders or
Post office Savings Bank (POSB) accounts depending upon the choice of
implementing agency and beneficiaries.
During the year
2014-2015 Rs.12770.8 million have been disbursed through POSB accounts and Rs.31673.55 million through Money Orders.
As per department
rulings, no GDS cannot work beyond 5
hours. But due to performing the above said work all the GDS performing their duties from 8-12 hours.
As such Branch Post Office is essential and rural post office be
converted as departmental rural post office and its employees may be treated as
holding civil posts and may be converted as departmental employees.
4. Compassionate Appointment:
The GDS officials are very low paid
employees. On retirement after putting
40years of service they are getting only around One Lakh rupees only. In the
event of their demise the family members were coming on the roads because there
is no facility of pension to the GDS. As they are not getting any pension or
gratuity amount at par with regular employees they can’t be compared with
regular employees for offering compassionate appointment to the dependents of
the GDS. In fact the ceiling of 50 points should be removed and one of the
dependent of GDS official should be given compassionate appointment. If it is
not feasible to remove the point system it should be restricted to 30 points.
Regarding this issue our FNPO federation already submitted a memorandum
to Sri. D. K. Chouhan committee
By the removal of ceiling of 10%
Directorate letter no 17-17/210-GDS Dated:1-08-2011 the issue of allowing compassionate
engagements to one of the dependents of the GDS discharged on invalidation
proof has been considered in the Directorate only the period from 1-01-1996 to
13-12-210 order no 19-19/2009-GDS dated 21-02-2012
But we demand to with draw the cases which are
only prior to 2010 and avail the facility should also cover to all the cases
5. Reconsideration of orders on stoppage of
deductions from TRCA of GDS employees from Co-operative societies :
GDS pay and allowances are very low when compared
to any other private/public sector employees. Due to performing of duties
during the entire day time there is no other source of income. The GDS were
troubling a lot for their livelihood. For compulsory expenditure like
education, marriage of their children and sudden expenditure like health
problems to the poor GDS, the co-operative societies are the major sources of
getting loans.
So we request you to re consider the
issue
6. Revision of Cycle Maintenance
Allowance of GDS Mail Carrier / Mail Deliverers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Postal Directorate vide memo no F.
NO 41-1/2011 - PAP dated 15.09.2015 has issued orders revising the CMA of GDS
to Rs 90/- per month with immediate effect. It was also ordered that the CMA
will be increased by 25% as and when the DA payable on revised pay scales goes
up by 50% in future.
We demand to
implement the orders w.e.f 01-01-2006
7. Service Discharge Benefit Scheme:
--------------------------------------------------------
a) We demand
you to settle the 60% of SDBS amount on the day of the GDS official retirement
effects.
b) As per the
orders of the Directorate vide memo no.6-11/2009-P.E.II dated 01-04-2013 clarify the rate of pension according
to his contribution and accumulation as on the day of retirement of GDS from
his service.
8. NUGDS Subscription:
--------------------------------
The NUGDS AP Circle is requesting the AIC to
enhance the subscription from Rs.10/- to Rs.20/- for smooth functioning of
Union and to meet the expenditure as per the rates increased.
9. Three men Committee:
----------------------------------
A three men committee should be formed at
All India Level to discuss with other GDS Unions
Yours Faithfully
(CH.LAXMI NARAYANA
Circle Secretary NUGDS
Andhra Pradesh
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