Circle Union offers its comments on the draft proposal on reorganization of postal divisions

No. P3NFPE-Odisha/10 - 06/2017

Dated at Bhubaneswar the 17^th June, 2017

 To

Shri A K Rath

Assistant Director (Estt.)

O / o the Chief Postmaster General, Odisha Circle

Bhubaneswar – 751 001

Sub:-  Comments / Suggestions on the Draft Proposal for Reorganization of Postal Divisions in Odisha Circle

Ref.-   C O letter No. EST/16-4/2017 (Re-Org), dated 13.06.2017

Respected Sir,

                        In response to C O letter under reference on the captioned subject this Circle Union would like to react as follows.

            The Draft Proposal only contains the addition / removal of Post Offices to / from the Division(s) identified to be reorganized. Since the re-organization proposal/process requires many other aspects like Staff and Sub-Divisional issues, Mail conveyance etc. to be examined beyond simple addition and removal of Post Offices, the proposal in its present form is considered as incomplete by this Circle Union.

           

            Thus, our comments on the proposal at this stage may not be correct.

           

            However, we would like to add the following points for discussion before taking a final decision.

1.   Sub-Divisional Issues:

            During reorganization of the Divisions, it is obvious that some postal Sub-Divisions will certainly be affected except the sub-Division(s) which will be completely added or removed along with all its BOs / SOs. Illustratively, if Pipli area now under Bhubaneswar Division is added to Puri Division as proposed, then some portion of Bhubaneswar South Sub Division will be removed. Similar will be the situation in all the three Divisions of Cuttack now proposed to be reorganized. The draft proposal does not contain any information on balancing the Sub-Divisions after addition/removal of Post Offices.

2.   Staff Problems:

            After reorganization situations may arise when the staff members may not be willing to leave their parent Division(s) when their post office(s) will be added to other Division(s).  In such cases, the staff members of the parent Division should be given an opportunity to exercise their option in this regard. But the draft proposal tells nothing if the staff members will be given any such opportunity for choosing the Division of their choice. When the reorganization is being done on administrative interest, staff welfare needs to be protected also.

3.   Issues relating to Mail / Cash conveyance:

            The draft proposal does not contain anything regarding mail and cash conveyance. Citing the example of Cuttack South Division, it may be stated that presently there are three major mail routes, viz., Cuttack RMS to Narsinghpur, Machhgaon and Paradeep.  On addition of Kalapathar and Banki area, another mail route will be added from Cuttack RMS to Banki which is now under the control of Cuttack City Division. All the existing mail routes are presently more than 100 KMs distance.  But the river Mahanadi will stand as a  barrier since all the four S Os now proposed to be added to Cuttack South Division are on the south side of the river and the area of this Division will be stretched beyond Mahanadi river which may not be convenient for it.

4.   Disproportionate Workload:

            As seen from the abstract of the draft proposal, the workload of Cuttack City and Bhubaneswar Division will be more with increase in number of Post Offices in comparison to all other Divisions now proposed to be reorganized. Reorganization needs to balance the workloads amongst the Division. The Draft Proposal is silent on the issue.

5.   Involvement of Divisional Secretaries of all Federations:

            The Divisional Secretaries of all Unions/Federations/Associations possess complete knowledge on the geographical situation of their Divisions who can suggest better than anybody else on the pros and cons of addition / removal of post office to / from Divisions. Thus, their involvement need not be ignored and they should be invited invariably for a fruitful discussion before taking a decision.

Therefore, under the circumstances, this Circle Union would like to request for making the draft proposal complete in all respect taking all such aspects into consideration which may affect the reorganization process and involve the Divisional Secretaries of all Unions / Federations / Associations for getting a clear and correct picture of the geographical situation of each and every Division now proposed to be reorganized before taking a final decision.

Hope, our suggestions will be given due importance.

      With regards.

Yours faithfully,

(BRUHASPATI  SAMAL)

Circle Secretary