Dear Comrades,
As you have noticed, we, on behalf of NFPE, Odisha State CoC have already written to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Odisha requesting him to appraise the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India for complete closure of Post Offices to contain spread of COVID-19. We are still awaiting a response for Chief Minister's Office.
Further, witnessing issuance frequent orders from the Directorate and Circle office in the recent past with arbitrary instructions to the grass root level which will help to spread the corona virus rather to contain the spread, we finally decided to appeal our Hon'ble Ministers to Govt. of India and Members of Parliament from Odisha to appraise the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India for complete closure of Post Offices to contain spread of COVID-19.
Accordingly, today we submitted our appeals through eMail to the following Ministers and MPs.
1. Sj. Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon'ble Cabinet Minister, Ministry of PNG & Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India
2. Sj. Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Hon'ble Minister, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Govt. of India
3. Sj. Bhartruhari Mahatab, Hon'ble MP(Lok Sabha)
4. Sj. Pinaki Misra, Hon'ble MP(Lok Sabha)
5. Sj. Suresh Pujari, Hon'ble MP(Lok Sabha)
6. Smt. Aparajita Sarangi, Hon'ble MP(Lok Sabha)
7. Dr. Achyutananda Samanta, Hon'ble MP(Lok Sabha)
8. Dr. Sasmit Patra, Hon'ble MP(Rajya Sabha)
A copy of the proforma letter is reproduced below for information of our members.
All the letters are sent separately today through the eMail Ids of the respective dignitaries. We would like to request the Divisional Secretaries of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack City, Puri and Sambalpur to pursue the matter with the local MPs. Copy of the letter will be sent to their WhatsApp Number.
Regards.
= B SAMAL =
Chairman
NFPE, Odisha State CoC
No.
NFPE – ODI / ........ / 2020
Dated
at Bhubaneswar the 26th
March, 2020
To
....................................
....................................
Sub:- Appeal to appraise the Hon’ble Prime Minister
of India for complete lockdown of all Post and RMS Offices to contain spread of
Novel Corona Virus.
Respected ..................,
With
deep concern, we would like to humbly represent the following facts requesting
to extend your immediate support to contain the spread of Novel Corona Virus in
the national interest during this critical juncture.
While the growth rate of the affected cases is
increasing day by day in India, it is a fact known to all that isolation and
social distancing is the need of the hour to contain the spread of COVID-19 and
that is being emphasized by both the Central and State Governments. The
Central Govt. has taken it with every seriousness and announced complete
lockdown of the entire nation for next 21 days from 24.03.2020 midnight.
But
contrary to that, in the name of providing 'essential service', the Postal
Department has ordered to open all the Head Post Offices, Delivery Post
Offices, Branch Post Offices (146968 post offices in toto out of 155531) which
are manned by nearly 5 lakh employees. In Odisha, out of 8172 post offices in
toto all the 6976 Rural Branch Post Offices and
all bigger offices like Mukhya Dak Ghar, Head Post Office, General Post Office
etc numbering 220 are ordered to be kept open. While
use of biometric devices has been dispensed with by Govt. of India, in a recent
order issued by the Department on 25.03.2020, the Department has emphasized to
ensure financial transactions in biometric mode and for booking and delivery of
accountable articles.
Though the postal employees and workers are well aware of the
instructions of the Administration and Police to take
tough action on anyone found violating this and risking their lives, their
family members and people of the State/Nation, they have no other alternative
but to come to office even during the above lockdown period. It
is needless to intimate that as many as 25000 postal employees working in 8172
post offices across the state of Odisha do interact with hundreds of customers
daily in each post office at the counters and handle lakhs of mails coming from
various sources including foreign mails both in Post and RMS Offices in a
hazardous condition and now in the present scenario they are quite vulnerable
to the Novel Corona Virus. This is the condition of 5 lakh postal employees and
workers working in 1.55 lakh post offices across the country interacting with
lakhs of customers and handling crores of domestic, national and international
mails with dust and unknown viruses.
Moreover,
at this critical juncture when there is absence of any transport facility
including Railways / Airways / State and Private Transports ceasing the
transmission of mails completely, booking of article is meaningless. When ATM
is provided with cash in every nook and corner and even in Post Offices
and when the ATM Cards issued both the banks and post offices can be used
interchangeably in post offices and banks, there is no need to open any Post
Office in the name of essentiality in service for effecting cash withdrawals.
In
addition, the preventive materials are not available in the local market on one
hand and no post office has yet been supplied with such materials on the other
as guided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, UNICEF, WHO and several
orders issued by Govt. of India through DoPT. The departmental orders to
arrange for Curfew Pass, transportation facility to bring the officials to
office are just in pen and paper since impracticable. We seriously fail to
sanitize the Post Offices and thermal scanning of both the customers and staff
members. The employees are working without mask, gloves, etc and thus quite
vulnerable to spread the deadly virus which directly contradicts the appeal of
the Hon’ble Prime Minister for maintaining social distancing and to stay at
home.
As a result, these offices, if not locked down may become the
maternity home for COVID-19 and the sincere efforts taken to contain the spread
of COVID-19 both by the Govt. of Odisha and Central Govt. may be futile.
Under the circumstances, we would like to sincerely appeal you to
kindly appraise the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India for complete lockdown of
Post and RMS offices till restoration of normalcy or otherwise to contain the
spread of COVID-19.
In spite of all these issues, even if the Central Govt. is
interested to open the post offices to provide minimum essential services to
the members of public, we should be very clear that the employees have never
ever hesitated to provide service to the nation. They have a glorious history of
rendering excellent and effective services to the nation for last 166 years
with the sole motto “Dak Sewa Jan Sewa”. Undoubtedly, we have served this land of
heterogeneous racial, lingual, religious and social culture upholding its rich
cultural heritage through religious pluralism with Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs,
Christians, Budhists, Jains etc. We not only just distributes letters, but
share their sorrows and happiness in more than 19500 mother tongues inclusive
of 22 scheduled languages and protect the national unity, social cohesion,
secular and federal structure and democratic ethos of the country. According to
Lord Dalhousie, the father of India Post “It makes the Post Office
what under any other system it never can be the unrestricted means of diffusing
knowledge, extending commerce and promoting in every way the social and
intellectual improvement of the people”
But now the situation is different and the Post Office and the
postal employees should not contribute in any manner to spread this deadly virus.
History may not excuse us, if the post office turns into a breeding house of
COVID-19.
If the Hon’ble Prime Minister thinks that postal services are
barely essential and inevitable during this lockdown period, then it is
requested to kindly appraise him to consider the following aspects for the
welfare of these 5 lakh postal employees and their family members who are
serving the nation like other essential service department.
i.
Only the General Post Offices,
Head Post Offices and Mukhya Dak Ghars should function in skeletal mode with
minimum required staff just to provide Savings Bank withdrawals which is the
basis need of the people now during this lockdown period. The Account holders
of other Post Offices can also withdraw up to Rs.25000/- from these offices due
to core banking facilities. So there will be no inconvenience to the members of
public in availing the minimum required service from the post office.
ii.
The works of all other post
offices except the above three categories should be suspended outright.
iii.
There should be no booking,
transmission, clearance of letter box and delivery of mails in any manner.
iv.
Arrangements should be made by
the local municipal authorities for regular sanitization of the post offices
ordered to be opened.
v.
Postal administration should
supply the necessary preventive materials (soap, sanitizer, hand-wash, mask,
gloves, apron etc) to all post offices to be kept opened and to all officials
brought on duty without any plea. Since these materials are not available in the
local market, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India should
supply centrally to the post offices through postal Directorate. No official
under any circumstances should be allowed to work without mask, gloves etc.
vi. Postal administration should
provide Curfew Pass and arrange transportation facility for the officials to
come / go from / to home without any plea.
vii.
The life of each postal employee
who is ordered to work during the lockdown period should be insured for Rs.50
lakh by the Central Govt.
viii.
Since the job of the employees
brought on duty is fraught with risk, they should be compensated with an
incentive at least of Rs.1000/- per day during the lockdown period.
Expecting your kind response and early action Sir.
With
profound regards.
Yours
faithfully,
(Bruhaspati
Samal)
Chairman
I appreciate the appeal Sir. I am also rendering service during this critical juncture with my colleagues at Rourkela 2 MDG.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing I would like to look into Sir. Many sub Post office s functions in far flung areas of Sundargarh District and their Dak is being sent through private buses. During this time there is urge for cash withdrawal. How they eill manage the same without receiving cash from HO.
ReplyDeleteGood ,the appeal to prime minister is justified on the grounds mentioned in the appeal.
ReplyDelete