Article Published in November, 2013 issue of “Postal Life”,
the monthly journal of AIPEU, Postman & Gr. D ( CHQ ), New Delhi
Written By :Bruhaspati Samal
Secretary, AIPEU, Gr.-C, Bhubaneswar
Oh
! Thanks a lot. At last, I could be able to get my Aadhaar Card after a
period of 7 months. Greeting the Postman when Mr. Hussain wanted to
share his feelings, he became surprised to notice the Postman going out
of his premises hurriedly in the bicycle with a disturbed mood.
Hello Dear ! Mr. Hussain called back the Postman – “Are you in a hurry?”
“Yes Sir.” – replied the Postman.
“I see today you are also late. But why? – Asked Mr. Hussain.
With
a heavy heart and pensive mood, the Postman replied, “Though our office
starts at 9 AM, we started working in the computer 2 hours late today
due to load-shading. Since the UPS is not under AMC nobody is attending
for repairing in spite of several correspondences and we are working on
direct current supply. But unfortunately, being in a sub-urban area,
there is frequent power cuts/load shading. To overcome the difficulty
though we have been supplied with a kerosene generator, we are unable to
collect kerosene since, as you know, the same is distributed under PDS
through ration card. It is too difficult on the part of the Postmaster
to collect kerosene from the open market and make the generator
operational. Actually, it is not understood why my Department considered
supply of kerosene generators. On the contrary, today my office has
received nearly 6000 accountable and ordinary articles including 3500
Aadhaar Cards and my share comes to nearly 600 letters including 450
Aadhaar Cards which are required to be delivered door to door covering a
distance of nearly 15 KMs in my beat today positively. Another painful
fact is that I have been recruited as a Postman 15 years back without
any basic computer knowledge and now ordered for making data entry of
all accountable mails of my beat in the system. Though I have gathered
some working knowledge, I have not yet been given proper training for
suitable duration enabling me for faster entry. Contradictorily, there
is no separate system available for the delivery branch and I have to
wait for my turn to come in the single node which has resulted in late
feeding of data and thus late beat-out” – the Postman replied.
“But can you deliver all the mails today itself in a fare and square manner ?” - Asked Mr. Hussain.
“I
will try my best since there is no other option left for me, Sir” –
replied the Postman. “The Department has fixed 2 minutes for delivering
an Aadhaar Card booked under Speed Post, 0.72 minute for an unregistered
mail, 0.42 minute for delivering an unregistered mail in a
multi-storied building, 10 minutes for moving a kilometer on a bicycle
and 19 minutes per Km on foot and 20 minutes to give return. Thus
excluding my moving time in the beat, lunch hour and return time, I will
get hardly 4 hours 30 minutes to work and suspending all other jobs, if
I concentrate on delivering the Aadhaar Cards only, it will take at
least 3 days to finish which is known to all my bosses. In the
circumstances, I don’t know the rush of mails during the next 3/4 days
and if this trend continues, perhaps to bring normalcy with complete
delivery, I have to take pain for weeks together. And God knows what
will be my position with such continuous pain to return back to normal
delivery condition.”
“Ya,
I do realize. But hasn’t your Department fixed the number of houses to
be visited and articles to be delivered in a day ?” – enquired Mr.
Hussain
“What
shall I tell you, Sir” – the Post man narrated. “The number of articles
to be delivered and houses to be visited during the duty of eight
hours has no where been laid down causing extreme harassment not only
to me but to all the delivery staff. At present the door to door beat
measurement system adopted by the department is not only unsatisfactory
but also incorrect as neither any scientific device like foot meter nor
cyclo-meter is used to assess the actual length of beat. Presently the
city is flooded with apartments and multi-storied buildings and the norm
for delivering an article in a multi-storied building has been fixed to
0.42 minutes for ordinary mails and 1.80 minutes for accountable mails
which is practically impossible. Though the flat owners of a
multi-storied buildings are required to install letter boxes in the
ground floor which will make easier delivery of ordinary mails and save
time, nobody is paying proper attention in spite of several requests.
We have to wait for minutes together before the security guards of an
apartment and move on foot from floor to floor which has not been
considered to fix the standard delivery norms of articles. Though my
leaders are continuously demanding to fix such norms, revise the
existing norms to a practicable one and adopt scientific method of
measuring the beat length in the interest of delivery efficiency and
rationalization of workload of postmen staff as well, nobody is paying
proper attention to it. Adding salt to injury, instead of filling in the
vacant posts, now a drive is being undertaken by the Department to
abolish such posts showing less workload arrived on wrong calculations. ”
Oh
God ! You are not bonded labourers of the British era. Why your
Department is knowingly trying to avoid human limitations? Is there any
plan to be customer friendly grossly ignoring the grass-root reality? –
asked Mr. Hussain.
The
Postman replied, “ You might be aware that to transform India Post into
a vibrant and responsive organization , the Quality Improvement Project
called Project Arrow undertaken in April 2008 through a Pilot in 50
Post Offices of 10 postal circles entailing comprehensive improvement of
the Core Operations of Post Offices as well as the ambience has now
spread over 18612 post offices. Among the core activities delivery of
all kinds of mails and payment of money orders on the day of receipt are
the important components. For effective and smooth implementation of
the concept, a web-based monitoring mechanism (through Data Extraction
Tool) has been devised to collect data from the field units directly
from the server without any manual intervention. The data analysis is
presented to all the Chief Postmasters General of 22 Postal Circles
through a video-conference every fortnight (earlier every week). Data on
all Key Performance indicators (KPls) is minutely scrutinized and gaps
in implementation and remedial measures thereto are discussed in the
video-conference. Dedicated Programme Offices have been set up at the
Headquarter level and at all 22 Circle Headquarters. Data exchange from
Post Offices and all communications with Circle Programme Offices are
through e-mail only. Thus, we have been seriously pressurized to effect
cent percent delivery of all mails on the day of receipt.”
“Oh!
To take the bull by the horns. But since it is quite impossible today
on your part, what alternatives do you have today ?” – asked Mr.
Hussain.
With
much hesitation, the Postman replied, “Sir, the vacant posts are not
filled in and in most of the cases the delivery works are being managed
through outsiders who don’t know about the area. In case of short term
vacancies like leave etc., no clear order to manage the delivery works
is seen to be issued by the authorities. Most of the times we are being
ordered to work for another staff on meager overtime allowance not
revised since years and not paid regularly/timely. The total
responsibility is being shouldered by the poor Postmaster. The Gramin
Dak Sewaks are the most exploited group in this regard without being
paid with the Combined Duty Allowance on the plea of some reasons or
other. The admissible TRCA either of the GDS working against the
departmental vacancies especially in the vacant post of Postman or his
substitute is not being sanctioned in time which is highly discouraging
and affecting the efficiency of the delivery staff. Another important
fact to note that most of these Aadhar Cards including corporate mails
like Cheque Books under CTS-2010 despatched by banks, premium notices
issued by insurance companies and such other mails bear incomplete
address in most of the cases and old address in many cases preventing
smooth and correct delivery on the day of receipt. These mails might
have been returned on the same day to the sender, but we have been told
to keep these articles for seven days under trial which is affecting our
tolerance limit (0% to 5 %) fixed now a days. Without giving any
written order, we have been suggested to show cent per cent delivery in
computer for today’s receipt and clear delivery phase wise as early as
possible.”
“But
it will certainly confuse a customer to see his letter delivered under
trace and track system when it is practically not delivered and kept
deposited in the Post Office. Really, it is a gross irregularity” – Mr.
Hussain was surprised.
“That’s
happening, Sir”. – stated the Postman. “In such cases, politely
approaching our esteemed customers with every humble submission and
explaining our compulsions and limitations also, we are delivering the
articles. I’m sorry to say that though most of our customers do realize
the problem, many complaints are being registered in the post offices
for which the Department is issuing continuous instructions
to ensure update delivery information correctly and not to upload any
information without actually delivering the letter. Adopting a very cut
and dry method, while verbal instructions are issued without any record
to save the skin, written orders are issued for initiating disciplinary
action. We are just a cat’s paw. I am too late today. Excuse me, Sir.
Let me go.”
The Postman left Mr. Hussain’s house leaving him in a thoughtful mood.
Alas!
How painful ! All the delivery staffs of the Post Office are in between
the devil and the deep sea – groaned Mr. Hussain and asked himself many
questions.
- Why
the Department of Posts is not realizing the real delivery pain and not
taking all the issues narrated by the Postman seriously for the benefit
of both the employees and the customers as well.?
- Why the delivery norms practically feasible aren't fixed and vacant posts aren't filled in?
- How can cent percent delivery on the day of receipt be possible without man and machine?
- Is there no real relief from such continuous pain in delivery?
*****
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