(Editorial - GDS CRUSADER)
The three lakh Grameen Dak Sevaks
remains as the symbol of British colonialism and still exploited even after the
independence of the Nation. The "Extraneous Departmental Agents" which was the
nomenclature of the GDS during the British regime and equated with the
Government employees became the “extras”
of the Department after Independance. Justice Talwar has declared that they are
holders of Civil Posts as per the Supereme Court Judgment and should be called
as Grameen Dak Karmchari with departmental status. But the Govt. of India has
chosen the nomenclature as "Grameen Dak Sevak" not as Karmachari.
The GDS Rules were subsequently amended
in 2001 and 2011 and made the GDS as holder of Civil Post “outside the civil
service” and applied only for the Disciplinary rules which is also not a
statutory one. They have been denied the prorata wages at par with the Departmental
employees. The pay has been termed as Time Related Continuity Allowance (TRCA).
All the positive recommendations of Justice Talwar Committee were buried after
the implementation of R.S.Natarajamuthy Committee. The GDS are now equated with the
part time workers. The Bonus which was granted at par with Departmental employees
was snatched away and files were constructed in
such way to deny all the benefits
to GDS permanently. The Officer who was associated with the Nataraja Murthy
committee has given the responsibility of implementing his own recommendations!!
But there was no protest at that time from the so called recognized GDS union.
A static silence due to obvious reasons of the leadership.
There is a clear discrimination
between the regular and GDS officials and we lost many things during this last
thirteen years. Wages have been reduced. Protection of pay granted in 1986 was
freezed. Now after one year there is no protection and the reduction will take
place. Bonus ceiling reduced to Rs.2500 from Rs.3500. The GDS workload norms
were tightened. The vacant GDS posts have not been filled up. The
indiscriminate combination of duties is the order of day and there is no
prorata wages to GDS as per the Sixth CPC. The 100% promotional avenues
enshrined for the GDS in MTS and Postmen recruitment rules were modified and open
market recruitment is resorted to. The relaxation of standard in the question
papers have been withdrawn and now tightened with the pattern of CBSE Xth
standard resulting many vacancies were not filled up and will go to the open
market, thus the GDS will be deprived of fair chances.
All these adverse effects had
taken place during the last 13 years and the so called recognized union remained as mute spectator under the chauvinist
leadership of GDS who was always taking position against NFPE. Now we have to
revive our activities by united approach under the NFPE with the total
cooperation of departmental and GDS comrades and fight against all these exploitation
and discrimination and undo all the injustices caused to us. We have to act
swiftly in unifying all the GDS comrades under one plartform of NFPE and formulate our demands in particular
for the departmentalization of GDS for which the unity among the GDS is a must.
We are not chauvinistic but really practical; we will put ourselves into constructive
criticism of our activities.
Comrades, we are meeting shortly
in Chennai in our first All India Conference from 21.03.2013 to 22.01.2013. We
are going to discuss and debate all our issues dispassionately and decide our
future course of action. We should evolve the strategy for the future programme
of action in mitigating the GDS problems and also on our organisational
advancement.
We are now an “Associate Member”
of NFPE and NFPE leadership has assured us to extend whole hearted support and
join with us in all the struggles including strike.
Let us meet in Chennai, discuss,
deliberate and decide our future course of action by fullest mobilization. Let
all GDS comrades march forward to Chennai and make the 1st AIC a
historic success.
P.Pandurangarao
General Secretary
AIPEU-GDS(NFPE)