MOBILIZE AND MARCH AHEAD

MOBILIZE AND MARCH AHEAD

(Editorial - GDS CRUSADER)

LET ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHENNAI AIC

The three lakh Grameen Dak Sevaks remains as the symbol of British colonialism and still exploited even after the independence of the Nation. The "Extraneous Departmental Agents" which was the nomenclature of the GDS during the British regime and equated with the Government employees became the “extras” of the Department after Independance. Justice Talwar has declared that they are holders of Civil Posts as per the Supereme Court Judgment and should be called as Grameen Dak Karmchari with departmental status. But the Govt. of India has chosen the nomenclature as "Grameen Dak Sevak" not as Karmachari.

The GDS Rules were subsequently amended in 2001 and 2011 and made the GDS as holder of Civil Post “outside the civil service” and applied only for the Disciplinary rules which is also not a statutory one. They have been denied the prorata wages at par with the Departmental employees. The pay has been termed as Time Related Continuity Allowance (TRCA). All the positive recommendations of Justice Talwar Committee were buried after the implementation of R.S.Natarajamuthy Committee. The GDS are now equated with the part time workers. The Bonus which was granted at par with Departmental employees was snatched away and files were constructed in  such  way to deny all the benefits to GDS permanently. The Officer who was associated with the Nataraja Murthy committee has given the responsibility of implementing his own recommendations!! But there was no protest at that time from the so called recognized GDS union. A static silence due to obvious reasons of the leadership.

There is a clear discrimination between the regular and GDS officials and we lost many things during this last thirteen years. Wages have been reduced. Protection of pay granted in 1986 was freezed. Now after one year there is no protection and the reduction will take place. Bonus ceiling reduced to Rs.2500 from Rs.3500. The GDS workload norms were tightened. The vacant GDS posts have not been filled up. The indiscriminate combination of duties is the order of day and there is no prorata wages to GDS as per the Sixth CPC. The 100% promotional avenues enshrined for the GDS in MTS and Postmen recruitment rules were modified and open market recruitment is resorted to. The relaxation of standard in the question papers have been withdrawn and now tightened with the pattern of CBSE Xth standard resulting many vacancies were not filled up and will go to the open market, thus the GDS will be deprived of fair chances.

All these adverse effects had taken place during the last 13 years and the so called recognized union  remained as mute spectator under the chauvinist leadership of GDS who was always taking position against NFPE. Now we have to revive our activities by united approach under the NFPE with the total cooperation of departmental and GDS comrades and fight against all these exploitation and discrimination and undo all the injustices caused to us. We have to act swiftly in unifying all the GDS comrades under one plartform of  NFPE and formulate our demands in particular for the departmentalization of GDS for which the unity among the GDS is a must. We are not chauvinistic but really practical; we will put ourselves into constructive criticism of our activities.

Comrades, we are meeting shortly in Chennai in our first All India Conference from 21.03.2013 to 22.01.2013. We are going to discuss and debate all our issues dispassionately and decide our future course of action. We should evolve the strategy for the future programme of action in mitigating the GDS problems and also on our organisational advancement.

We are now an “Associate Member” of NFPE and NFPE leadership has assured us to extend whole hearted support and join with us in all the struggles including strike.

Let us meet in Chennai, discuss, deliberate and decide our future course of action by fullest mobilization. Let all GDS comrades march forward to Chennai and make the 1^st AIC a historic success.

P.Pandurangarao

General Secretary

AIPEU-GDS(NFPE)

Posted by: AIPEU-GDS (NFPE) Odisha Circle.