Postal employees express concerns over workload, pay as minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia proposes mall like post offices | Bengaluru News

BENGALURU: Union minister for communications, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, looked to turn post offices into mall-like services, beyond the banking and postal services they now provide. However, postal employees, during an interaction with him on Thursday, found themselves already underpaid and overburdened, functioning beyond the stipulated five hours and now expected to perform more.The exchange took place at Townhall in the city, where 15 best-performing ‘Gramin Dak Sevak’ (GDS) from Karnataka were felicitated in the presence of 800 of their counterparts. Among the GDS present from across the state were mail carriers (who carry bags of mail), packers (who tie up the parcels and seal the bags in post offices), mail delivery personnel, branch postmasters (BPM, who carry out financial services like account opening and insurance registering in the post office) and assistant branch postmasters (who deliver mails and substitute for BPM when needed).“You are my family,” Scindia told contract-based employees of the postal service in Bengaluru in a fiery speech. “Each one of my post offices in my village should become a small little mall for the village where everything can be bought virtually.”“Today, Dhakiya (postman/postwoman) is not just a purveyor of mail, but also brings banks to homes. The Karnataka circle has performed tremendously, with 200 crore mails and parcels delivered every year, 30% of which are done in this state.”Vandita Kaul, Secretary, Department of Posts, also lauded the Karnataka circle for its swift adoption of APT 2.0 and its leadership in digital innovation. “Karnataka Circle has been proactive in the efficient rollout of the new IT system and in the strengthening of the parcel network and public engagement to innovative philately.”During an interaction with the minister, B. Nagarajappa, who works as a BPM at Davanagere, said, “We just have a postmaster and clerk to cater to 46,500 live accounts, and need more hands onboard.”He was disheartened by the poor remuneration for the job everyone in the postal department was doing. “We do the IPPB (India Post Payments Bank) work but do not get the benefits for our work — 75 per cent of the work related to banking is done by us, and the banks reap benefits.”He was among the 15 best-performing GDS.Talking to TOI, another personnel from Channapatna explained, “Working for 27 years, I earn Rs 27,000 in hand. The last time salaries were revised was 10 years ago.”Several GDS personnel who spoke to TOI unanimously hoped the salaries would increase, their roles be made permanent, and their hours of service be recognised. “We are appointed for a five-hour shift and get paid accordingly. But work goes on for eight hours. If all the hours are calculated, they may have to regularise us, and hence, we are kept at this scale and schedule,” said another.One of the changes in the functioning of the postal department is the delineation of offices of BPM and ABPM under the integrated delivery centre system. “What works in cities doesn’t augur well for rural areas. They decided to club multiple postal codes and deliver mails to one location — an integrated delivery centre, a month ago. While cities have pincodes close to each other, people can access the centre if they miss their mails. But in rural areas, where houses are even 20 km from an IDC, if a person misses his mail, he will have to travel the entire distance to the centralised location to get it. The problem also exists for delivery agents,” said a mail overseer from Mandya.Several chided the department’s policy of having a ‘cycle allowance’ of Rs 155 a month for delivering mails. “Times have changed. We don’t have cycles. We need fuel allowance,” they said.