Search for a compromise

POSTAL SERVICES AROUND the country have been crippled with three federations of employees launching their indefinite strike on Tuesday. This was very much on the cards and the Centre, especially the Communications Ministry, must take the responsibility for not sorting out the problems in time. The Communications Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, was successful in brokering a temporary truce with the unions in May this year. The clear understanding when an agreement was clinched in the dead of night to prevent a strike called for May 1 was that the outstanding issues raised by the federations would be resolved in three months. The unions have been issuing frequent warnings to the Ministry and the Government that the grievances were not being addressed. They even set an August 31 deadline to end the impasse over the deadlocked negotiations. Their charge is that the Government has adopted delaying tactics and the `negativism' of the approach was blocking a mutually-acceptable agreement. Mr. Paswan has, of course, been busy with the Bihar elections and more recently with forming his new party. In between, there was the crisis over the telecommunications employees, which was overcome through a largesse. It is now time to break the postal deadlock.

Over the years, the Department of Posts has become the `poor country cousin' after it was detached from the earlier version of Posts and Telegraph or later telecommunications. Unfortunately, telecommunications has been the breadwinner, not the postal services. After the split-up and with the entry of private players in the postal services - in the form of courier services - maintaining the huge manpower of the Department of Posts has been a burden. Some value-added and premium services have been introduced to keep the department afloat. It is at this juncture that the federations are demanding the implementation of the Talwar committee recommendations, particularly regularisation in service of three lakh `Extra Department Agents' (EDAs) or staff who serve in remote and rural areas. To press these demands, over six lakh postal employees across the country have resorted to an indefinite strike, paralysing the services at the onset of the festive season of Christmas and new year. With Parliament in session and the festival approaching, pressure will mount on Mr. Paswan, his Ministry and the Government itself to find an amicable settlement as soon as possible.

In urban centres, many companies and corporates have switched to courier services on a regular basis. But for the common man, and that too in the rural and far-flung areas, it is still the Department of Posts which holds the sway and the postman is still the most visible service provider. Mr. Paswan first set up an inter-departmental committee of Secretaries and then capped it with a Group of Ministers to study its report. Obviously, the Government, especially the Finance Minister, is going to find it impossible to absorb the three lakh EDAs into `Government service'. But it is time for Mr. Paswan to break the log-jam and come up with a solution. If the EDAs cannot be absorbed, a viable alternative has to be found. The idea of establishing communication centres in villages and utilising the EDAs for other revenue-earning services must be explored and pursued. The postal staff must also realise that if they prolong the strike, they will lose the support and sympathy of the people, who will be forced to switch over to other forms of communication including the couriers. In the present age of computers, e-mail and cellular phones, the very survival of postal services hangs in the balance. The employees should neither hold the public to ransom nor dig their own grave. They must work for a compromise.

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Section  : Opinion
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