NFPE WRITES ON THE PROBLEMS OF STAFF IN PROJECT ARROW OFFICES

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES

1^st Floor, North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi - 110001

 

PF-66/2010          Dated 28^th February 2010

 

To

 

The Secretary

Department of Posts

Dak Bhawan

New Delhi – 110001

 

Sub: A study of the condition of Project Arrow Offices and request for changes thereon.

 

This Federation seeks your kind attention to the following aspects in the Project Arrow Offices for effecting necessary amends in order to bring about an atmosphere of tension-free work and preventing all kinds of violations of Departmental Rulings and Procedures. We request your serious attention to our view points:

 

1. We draw reference to the letter of this Federation addressed to Hon'ble MOSC & IT and submitted during the meeting held by the Hon'ble MOSC & IT in which the Secretary [P] also was present on 11.11.2008 [copy enclosed for ready reference].  Hon'ble MOSC &IT while seeking our cooperation for the Project also assured to look into the issues raised in the letter of our Federation. It is unfortunate that many of the issues raised in our letter at that time are still unaddressed by the Department of Posts.

 

2. The basic element of improvement of mail delivery to the public rests on conveyance of mails in time to the office of delivery. The insistence of 100% delivery on the same day of arrival of mails alone is given importance by the administration at various levels.  There is no attention and planning for conveyance of mails in shortest time limit from the originating point to destination offices. The infrastructure required for improving the performance of conveyance of mails is given only lip service and no worthy action to purchase new mails vans and recruit new drivers and improving the mail van schedule etc are undertaken. Ironically the emphasis of the department is now shifting to outsourcing of mail operations rather than strengthening our own fleet of vehicles and drivers. This trend is to be reversed and we feel that more attention for conveyance of mails is to be taken to attain any success in the intended goals of Project Arrow and steps to ensure reaching of mails in offices of delivery under D+1 time frame is only the option for improving the delivery performance to gain customer glee. Unfortunately the department is compromising with the time taken for reaching the mails in office of delivery but takes a tuff position in delivery performance by Postmen staff on the same day of receipt of mails.

 

3. The Blue Book of Project Arrow assures full complement of staff strength in such offices. A study by this Federation revealed that invariably the staffs of Project Arrow Offices are working understaffed. The Administration has miserably failed to guarantee full sanctioned strength. The In charge and supervisory officials of Project Arrow Offices are tortured by the shortage of staff as they are expected to manage most efficiently with or without staff!!

 

4.  The shortage of staff is a burden to the hard working staff and amidst their hard work they are unnecessarily distracted by frequent phone calls by various authorities about transactions etc. It is advisable that a separate and an exclusive hand are posted in Project Arrow Offices to attend the phone calls of the higher officers to answer their queries during the whole day.

 

5. The insistence of 100% delivery of accountable articles is impractical under any standards. The threats and pressures from above are therefore leading the officials to commit various practices that are against the Departmental Rules and Regulations. To satisfy the higher levels it has become a common practice in several Project Arrow Offices to create such false records and practices to show 100% delivery performance. For example money orders and cash are handed over without entering them in the computer system in the morning but after the payment is done and the postmen staff are returned in the afternoon or evening, those money orders which were paid are only entered in the computer as though they were only entrusted to the Postmen Staff in the morning! A scrutiny of the data collected at the Postal Directorate will clearly reveal that in many offices the Postmen were given cash for Money Orders only in the evening and that the 100% payment was done by the Postmen within five minutes! Therefore it is better to stop harassment of staff insisting 100% delivery which is humanly impossible under the present conditions. We suggest that sanction of staff according to new norms finalised in consultation with the staff and maintaining a two postmen beat system at least strictly in urban and semi-urban areas is the answer for improving the delivery performance.

 

6. Similarly the practice of redirecting the undelivered articles in the computer system but without physically redirecting them; Re-entering those same letters the next day as though they were received fresh on the next day; Non-entering of the accountable articles received in the afternoon in the system but entering them only on the n ext day etc are some clear violations of Departmental Rules practiced in Project Offices to falsely satisfy ourselves that delivery performance is high!

 

7. Postmen staffs are pressurized to deliver MOs and RLs to unauthorised persons in the absence of correct addresses is another trend visible. The Postmen are even orally ordered to sign themselves in the MOs and for RLs and deliver or pay the article or money to the addressee the next day to reach high performance level is not uncommon in many places! All types of violations of Departmental Rules are encouraged or rather insisted in the name of 100% delivery performance!

 

8. In the whole exercise a basic thing is forgotten by the administration. To ensure better delivery performance the Project Arrow Offices require adequate strength of Postmen Staff also. This factor is non-existent in the sight of the administration. We see the reduction of postmen strength in the name of single beat system on one hand and insistence of 100% delivery on the other hand! Without ensuring 100% staff strength required how can 100% delivery can be ensured? A question in the daily reporting shall be included therefore as to whether the sanctioned strength of Postmen as well as other staff was maintained in the office every day. Without ensuring 100 % sanctioned strength of Postmen there is absolutely no possibility of reaching higher standards of delivery.

 

9. Expecting 100% delivery performance while compelling the Postmen to do combined duty of vacant Postmen beat is another major problem faced by the staff. How a single Postman could be expected to perform maximum performance when he is burdened with the work of another Postman also? The Project Arrow Office s should not resort to combined duty of Postmen on any working day and substitutes shall be allowed to be engaged by the In-charge of Project Arrow Offices without any restrictions to ensure better delivery performance.  Insistence on Combined duty will only lower the delivery performance.

 

10. Unnecessary expenditure is incurred in the name of Project Arrow for renovating the offices which are already new or renovated recently. Wasteful expenditure to the tune of several crores of rupees adversely affecting the postal budget is not the proper way of improving the delivery performance. Instead of wasting cores of rupees on wasteful expenditure in renovating the already renovated buildings, providing for adequate staff of delivery is a better option for improving real performance of delivery.

 

11. There is a tendency of issuing oral orders in violation of several Rulings of Department by senior Officers instead of issuing each and every order in writing. The oral orders in violation of Government Rulings are not sustainable before law and the officers are well aware of that. In spite of that they issue oral orders only to escape the responsibility of violating Government Orders. This practice should end forthwith and the Directorate should insist all Officers to issue only written orders to be followed by Project Arrow Staff. We urge that no staff should be proceeded against or made responsible for not carrying out oral orders in the absence of supporting written orders.

 

12. This Federation also urges for causing instructions to stop issuing threats followed by unwarranted punishments for not carrying out 100% delivery performance by staff. We find that the punishment is on the increase in the Project Arrow Offices and this trend is not going to encourage the staff to perform better. In the absence of rectifying the above mentioned issues, improvement of delivery will remain only a dream and  unrealisable target.

 

This Federation therefore urges upon you to cause to arrange a meeting between the Official Side and Staff Side exclusively for the purpose of discussing all contended issues of Project Arrow Scheme with an objective to find solutions for improving the performance of delivery under project Arrow. Any continuation of the present method of torture of staff will lead the present simmering of discontentment into staff unrest.  

 

Thanking you,

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 Sd/- 

[K.Ragavendran]

Secretary General

 

--
K.Ragavendran
Secretary General NFPE