Main issue before CWC meeting at Patna

Among the issues that CWC Patna is going to debate on, upgradation of GP of IPs takes the centre stage. The GS had called for opinion of Circles on the merger proposal of IP & ASP cadres with surrender of Gazetted status of ASPs. Several opinions have emerged in the meantime.

It is observed that some Circles have opined strongly in favour of retaining Gazetted Status of ASPs at any cost as, according them, it enhances the social status of ASPs.  Some others have opined for merger of ASP cadre with PS Gr.B cadre. Opinion has also emerged to the effect that GP of Rs.5400/- should be demanded for PS Gr.B cadre. Some Circles have expressed apprehension that if Gazetted status of ASPs will be withdrawn the IP cadre will become vulnerable to disciplinary action by Divisional Heads which will ultimately harm their promotional prospect to PS Gr.B cadre because of the punishments to be imposed by Divisional Heads on flimsy grounds on personal motives.

The situation shows that chaos dominates the minds of the IP cadre which is obstructing the way of taking a unanimous decision that can facilitate upgradation of the GP of IPs. It appears as if everything is distributed free and one can choose anything at will to suit one’s own convenience. No doubt, ours is a democratic body and every member is entitled to his / her own view. But as one of my colleagues in Odisha Circle remarked, there is too much of democracy within the Association which is rather creating more confusion in decision making process than making the decision simpler to help achieve our goal. There goes a saying – if wishes were horses, then beggars could ride. I had mentioned this during the All India Conference of the Association held in New Delhi on 3-4 April 2010. But we continue to indulge in wishful thinking unmindful of whether or not the proposals that we keep on discussing can be implemented practically.

True, some of the concerns expressed by the members while considering the proposal of merger of cadres for getting upgraded GP of IPs are genuine. But if all such concerns are raised at a time, the main issue gets diluted and it leads to a situation where we can find that we cannot move ahead because, the concerns are not addressed to suit everybody’s requirement. The rule of democracy attaches importance to the majority opinion for benefit of masses and when this rule was applied to our Association it was held by majority opinion in the last All India Conference in New Delhi in 2010 that IP and ASP cadres should merge. The question of merger of ASP cadre with PS Gr.B cadre was ruled out due to incompatibility of duty assignments of these two different cadres.

Gazetted status of ASPs is directly linked to the proposal of merger as our demand is to bring parity with the Inspectors of CBDT/CBEC. It is a well known fact that if retention of Gazetted status is insisted upon, it will have its own impact on the process of element of direct recruitment of IPs (through SCC) which will obstruct the proposal of merger of two cadres thereby disturbing the demand of parity with the counterparts in other Departments/Ministry. At this stage IP cadre is treated as incomparable to Inspectors of CBDT/CBEC because of the intermediary cadre of ASPs for which the GP of IP is at lower level.  Bringing parity with the Inspectors of CBDT/EBEC on GP issue is our main demand. Inspectors of CBDT/CBEC are non-gazetted but can anybody justify that they carry lesser social status than IPs/ASPs? Gazetted status for ASPs is no doubt good in the present situation but when it is obstructing accrual of benefit to a section of employees within the cadre i.e. IPs, is not it negotiable? Democracy lays stress on mass benefit. The upgradation of GP of IPs to Rs.4600/- will not only benefit the IPs, it will also benefit the ASPs financially. Then why obstruct the proposal to protect the interest of ASPs only on the ground of so called social status?  Does the Association belong to ASPs alone? Can the financial benefit that the change would bring for ASPs also be overlooked for the shake of so-called social status?

Upgradation of GP of IPs to Rs.4600/- will provide scope for IP cadre officials to get GP of Rs.5400/- at least the stage of MACP–III. Without upgradation most of the members of IP cadre will get stuck at the GP stage of Rs.4800/-. While GP of Rs.5400/- yields the benefit of travel by air besides hike in transport allowance and enhancement of status for getting Govt. accommodation and other benefits, GP of Rs.4800/- is comparable to GP of Rs.4200/- only so far as all these benefits are concerned. We continue with Gazetted status without getting entitlement to travel by air all through service career but without being Gazetted our counterparts enjoy all the benefits attached to GP of Rs.5400/-, and we still continue with the illusion that we command higher respect in society with the so called Gazetted status. We have to keep in mind that Gazetted status has come to us ‘without any extra benefit’. Rather, we have surrendered the financial benefit of PLB. As regards social status is concerned, Department of Posts no longer enjoys the monopoly of carrying mails. With number of Courier companies growing steadily with expansion of their business opportunities, one can imagine the real social status of postal employees in public estimation now-a-days.

Another aspect is that apprehensions have been raised that withdrawal of Gazetted status will make ASPs go back to the clutches of Divisional Heads so far as exercise of disciplinary powers is concerned and this will make the life of ASPs miserable. We should know that IPs are still under the clutches of Divisional Heads. If the Association is concerned about the upliftment of IP cadre, it should not think of compartmentally for ASPs only. Rather it should think of IPs also. Let the Association propose to the Govt that like in the case of ASPs, the Head of the Circles should be made the Appointing Authority of IPs, leaving the Divisional Heads with authority to report only through APAR. The Dept. has now set up a Committee to look into the promotional prospect of IPs and ASPs.  The Association should also come up with the proposal before the Committee to look into the aspect of appointing authority of IPs. Even when submitting the merger proposal, a demand could also be placed simultaneously that merger of IPs and ASPs is acceptable with condition that Head of the Circle will be the appointing authority of IPs. To justify this, we can say that in the present situation, Head of the Circle is the appointing authority of ASPs and the situation cannot be altered to their disadvantage when two cadres merge.

There is a proposal from one Circle that the Association should demand GP of Rs.5400/- for PS Gr.B cadre. This Association has no business in demanding upgradation of GP of PS Gr.B officers nor is it expected that the Govt. will take this demand from this Association when there is a separate Association for the PS Gr.B officers. Let the Postal Officers Association take appropriate action on the issue.

We need to be pragmatic to consider all the issues that affect the entire cadre of IPs without distinction of IPs and ASPs separately. Let CWC take a suitable decision that may bring benefit to the entire cadre of IPs and let CHQ follow up the decision to bring the benefit to the entire IP cadre officials as early as possible. CWC should also decide the course of action to be followed if the Govt. delays the issue further without any worthwhile action.

B B Mohanty

CS, AIAIASP, Odisha Circle Branch &

Oftg AD(Accts/Rect), CO, Bhubaneswar