Postal employees plan protests
EMPLOYEES of the postal department are planning a sustained protest against the Government’s move to amend the Indian Post Office Act, 1898.
The proposed amendment is apparently intended to throw the postal sector open to private operators and, according to the postal unions, is a direct fall-out of the policy of “blind liberalisation and privatisation”.
According to a statement issued by the National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) and the Federation of National Postal Organisations (FNPO), the amendment, if passed, would spell disaster to an efficient public utility service and endanger the future of six-lakh employees – three -lakh regular workers and three-lakh gramin dak sevaks of the Indian Postal Department.
As per a new insertion – Section 4-A in the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill 2002 – the Central Government ‘may grant registration on such terms and conditions, as it thinks fit, to any person or body for carrying out any act or performing any service falling under Section 4 in consideration of such fees as is set forth in the second schedule.’
Moreover, according to the unions, it is ironical that even the Western countries, which pressure other countries to liberalise their economies, refuse to totally open up their own postal services.
