All India Postal Employee Union, Gr-C is the major constituent of National Federation of Postal Employees - The biggest Federation of the Largest Postal Network of the World highlighting the principles of unity and struggle for the advancement of postal workers
Wednesday, 20 January 2021
Saturday, 16 January 2021
India Post offers snapshot on confronting COVID-19
India Post has played a significant role in the
country’s communication and socio-economic development for more than 150 years.
During this time, it has touched the lives of almost every Indian citizen
through its delivery of mail, financial services and the provision of
government social benefit schemes, among a host of other people orientated
activities.
With 156,000 Post Offices and 420,000 employees,
the country has one of the world’s largest postal networks. The country’s Post
Office Savings Bank (POSB) has around 365 Million accounts and deposits
amounting to some USD 123 Billion. As the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly fanned out
across the world, India Post continued to provide its impressive services.
The first COVID-19 case was detected in India on
30 January. As of the end of September there were around 6 million positive
cases reported. To try to halt the spread of the virulent disease, the Indian
government introduced a national lockdown. This resulted in the stalling of the
movement of people and goods; cargo services were also severely affected.
Faced with the enormous scale of these problems,
India Post focused on a number of priorities as it aimed to turn the
countrywide challenges into opportunities. Acknowledging that the staff’s
safety was paramount, India Post launched Standard Operating Procedures at
postal work places offering guidance on social distancing, hand washing,
thermal scanning, use of masks, disinfection and sanitisation of premises and
equipment.
Postal services were identified as essential
services during lock down. To meet demand, the vast network of post offices
were galvanised to work in coordination with State Governments and local
bodies. Control Rooms at India Post Headquarters and Circle (State) Headquarters
were established to manage and respond to immediate needs around the country.
India Post also gave the highest possible
priority to medical supplies and the payment of wages under government social
security benefit schemes. Flights to evacuate expatriates and cargo flights
were used for the transport of essential post. The suspension of railway
services, the primary mode of mail transport for India Post, also heavily
disrupted postal supply chains. To combat this problem, India Post launched its
nation-wide Road Transport Network with 56 long haul national routes and 266
regional routes connecting 75 major cities, and a daily run of over 25,000
kilometres.
Using this method, around 40,000 tonnes of
shipments were delivered through this network from 25 March to 31 July 2020.
Much needed Covid-19 testing kits were also delivered in special cold storage
vans using short turnaround times.
India Post also worked during the lockdown to
ensure that the Indian people had access to local financial services. During
lockdown more than 175 Million transactions valued at around US$46 billion were
made through POSB accounts and around 3.5 million POSB ATM transactions worth
US$158 billion took place.
Speaking in the 21 June edition of The
Hindu, an English language newspaper in India, Pradipta Kumar Bisoi,
secretary, Department of Post, said, “The focus was on the supply chain and the
last-mile delivery of essential services as well as the provision of basic
postal and financial services.”
Source : https://www.upu.int/en/News/2021/1/India-Post-offers-snapshot-on-confronting-COVID-19
UPU News : Challenges drive innovation in a momentous year
The
year 2020 will certainly be a year that we will never forget. Covid-19 has seen
borders close, countries lockdown, and physical distancing change the way we
work and live. For the postal sector, letter volumes decreased significantly,
and workers put their lives on the line to continue delivering mail. But new
opportunities arose – ones that fostered inclusion for the entire postal
industry and ones that enabled posts to capitalize on the booming e-commerce
sector.
Prior
to the global widespread outbreak of Covid-19, the Universal Postal Union (UPU)
kicked off its year with its High-Level Forum on wider postal engagement –
something which became essential during 2020. The event examined how the UPU
could deepen private sector engagement. Following the meeting, a task force was
set up to propose the way forward. Recommendations from the task force will be
fed into the strategy developed for the next four years of the UPU’s business
cycle.
Due
to the global pandemic, however, the UPU had to make the difficult decision to
postpone its 27th Universal Postal Congress, which was to be held in Abidjan,
Côte d’Ivoire in August 2020. Congress will now be held in August 2021 in
Abidjan.
Speaking
in March, Hussein said, “I want all of UPU’s many stakeholders to know that, in
this difficult time, we will continue to offer you a world-class service and to
uphold our postal mandate as a UN specialized agency.”
As
part of this commitment, in March the UPU strengthened its relationship with
the UNI Global Union – the representative for postal workers worldwide, to help
support postal operators and their unions to take informed and pro-active
approaches to safeguarding the health of workers and customers.
As
a result, posts adopted contactless delivery methods, staggered working rotas
for staff, and deployed millions of PPE items – both for employees and for
local communities and businesses. The UPU also assisted with the delivery of
PPE. In July, the union reported that it had provided 1.2 million masks to least
developed countries as part of a joint project with the United Nations Office
for Project Services (UNOPS).
The
UPU also worked hard to ensure that cross border deliveries could continue. In
April, the UPU joined a campaign launched by the International Air Transport
Association (IATA) to help keep cargo planes moving as governments suspend
passenger flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The
UPU also worked with countries to develop new cross border routes. In a world
first, mail-only trains from China helped clear the huge backlog of mail
destined for Europe and deliver medical supplies in April. The use of the rail
network to deliver mail is a success for the Universal Postal Union’s Supply
Chain Team, which championed the rail network for the delivery of mail between
Europe and Asia.
During
the pandemic posts played an important role in keeping communities connected.
In April, the UPU launched a new project to highlight this – an online resource center to collect stories regarding how posts are delivering
social and financial services to their citizens. “It shares case studies on
successful examples in the hopes of encouraging policy-makers around the world
to collaborate with their posts on similar services,” said Hussein.
An
Post, for example, has provided activity books for children and carried out
daily visits for the elderly. Australia Post, meanwhile, set up its Pharmacy
Home Delivery Service at the end of March to deliver citizens much-needed
medicines. And in France, La Poste helped deliver spare school computer
equipment to children in need.
The UPU also worked closely with posts to help
them improve their services. In March, it met with high-level representatives
from the Government of Côte d’Ivoire to boost the participation of micro, small
and medium-sized enterprises in the country’s e-commerce market as part of the
eTrade for All project.
The
union also launched a new E-commerce Guide, which charts the explosion in
smartphone applications. The guide sets out the UPU’s capacity building and
technical assistance to posts to help them succeed in the e-commerce market.
Meanwhile,
in July using UPU’s PosTransfer standards, Haypost and Russian Post launched
new money transfer systems in the CIS region. The transfer system will offer
financial services to individuals living in the remotest areas of Armenia and
Russia.
These are just some examples of how the UPU’s work
has supported posts throughout 2020. The union continues to innovate. One
example in 2020 was the launch of a new blockchain project to create a digital
marketplace to host, trade and track crypto-stamps. Furthermore, in August the
UPU’s Postal Technology Centre created the eCom API, a package of application
programming interfaces (APIs) that builds a comprehensive e-commerce solution.
And more recently the UPU has revealed that it will develop a new environmental
sustainability program as part of the UPU 2021-2024 Strategy.
Speaking
in July, Hussein summarized the key to Covid-19 recovery for the postal sector,
“During the pandemic, postal workers have been viewed as essential
workers; courageously making the rounds in the face of the deadly virus. Almost
every postal operator has been able to adapt and change their business model
during this crisis. That is an incredible achievement. If we continue that
spirit of innovation, I believe the momentum from the Covid-19 pandemic will
drive the industry forward long after the crisis has ended.”
Circle Union writes to Chief PMG / CHQ regarding gross violation of Directorate guidelines issued in connection with Cadre Restructuring of Group-C Postal employees and arbitrary abolition / redeployment / upgradation / downgradation / attachment of LSG / HSG–II / HSG-I posts / officials in Odisha Circle
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