Posts undelivered as dak karamcharis continue stir

Bathinda, August 22

Residents of the rural areas of the state have not been receiving letters and other important mails for the past seven days as members of the Pendu Dak Karamchari Union have been observing strike.

Sitting on protest for the seventh consecutive day, the protesting employees proved that they would not budge till their demands were not heeded by the authorities.

Although the city received downpour this afternoon, they continued their protest.

On the condition of anonymity, rural postal employees said all these days, the employees had been storing the posts inside a room.

The posts will be distributed only after their strike is over and their demands are heeded, they said.

Residents of the rural areas are facing difficulty in getting their important posts, including documents such as PAN cards, ATM cards, Aadhar cards, passports and other certificates.

Even on reaching the main post office, they were sent back stating that the posts had not been sifted and segregated and hence could not be given to them without keeping a record.

The protesters threatened the Central Government that in case their demands were not heeded then they would intensify their stir.

They said they would ensure that residents of rural areas also participated in their stir.

Elaborating on their demands, divisional president of the union, Nachhtar Singh Khemuana, and divisional secretary Balwinder Kaur Khara said the Central Government had constituted the GDS pay commission committee.

The committee had submitted its report for the pay and allowances for rural postal employees with the government in 2016 but the Postal Department is yet to implement the revised provisions, they added.

They said the government had adopted the attitude of postponing the implementation of the report and this had affected the financial condition of nearly 2.65 lakh rural postal employees.

The protesters announced that on August 24, rural postal employees from across the country would gather at the New Delhi main post office to stage a stir. — TNS