Postal Department employees to stage dharna in Ambala today

Ambala, August 3

On a call given by the National Federation of Postal Employees and the All-India Postal Employees Union (AIPEU), Postal Department employees have decided to stage a dharna on August 4 and observe a one-day strike on August 10 to mark their protest against the government’s decision of corporatisation of the department.

Naresh Gupta, circle secretary, AIPEU, said “India Post Payments Bank Limited (IPPB) was established in September 2018 as the first PSU under the Department of Posts (DoP) as a policy of dual structure. While the IPPB has been contributing its technological process in helping modernise products of the DoP in line with banking practices since then, the department is extending the support of its distribution network in creating a unified one-stop platform for delivering various government-to-citizen services.”

“With a view to avoiding the above dual structure and keeping only single IPPB structure to be used for banking, insurance and other financial services provided by the India Post so far, the Cabinet has approved the IT Modernisation Project 2.0 of the DoP for an outlay of Rs 5,785 crore to be incurred for a period of eight years from 2022-23 to 2029-30. It was okayed with key decisions that core postal operations such as postal and point of sale, accounting, field network, back office management and postal hardware will be the domain of the DoP and the rest of the operations such as like banking and insurance and risk management will be merged with the IPPB,” he said.

Gupta said the National Small Savings Scheme (NSSS) operated in 1.57 lakh post offices as Post Office Small Savings Scheme (POSSS), Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and other financial products and services introduced by the DoP subsequently since the promulgation of the Indian Post Office Act, 1854, would now lose their existence after a merger with the IPPB. Out of 1.57 lakh post offices, 1.30 lakhs were in the rural areas. Investors of the Post Office Small Savings Scheme were mainly rural poor belonging to the economically weaker section of society. Their hard-earned money was quite safe and secured under the POSSS providing a good amount of returns. It might not be a wise decision to force the merger of their deposits with a loss-making banking organisation.

The union members said to protect the interest of 30 crores investors and their 10 lakh crore investments under the POSSS, the government needed to stop the proposed merger. To mark their protest against the corporatisation and other demands, the employees will go on a one-day strike on August 10. On August 4, the employees will stage a dharna and later organise a rally in Ambala Cantonment.