National
Federation of Postal Employees
1st
Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001
No. PF-Covid-19/2020 Dated: 24th March-2020
To
The Secretary,
Department of Posts,
Dak Bhawan,
New Delhi-110001
SUB: PREVENTIVE
MEASURES TO CONTAIN THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
CLOSURE OF POST OFFICES AND RMS OFFICES
Respected
Sir,
With
deep concern, we are presenting the facts to the kind knowledge of the
Department to re-consider the decisions already taken in connection with
functioning of Post office through out the country in the name of age old
'essential service' slogan, there by inviting greater troubles and life risk on
the days to come, not only to the employees, but also to the common public,
which is against National interest at this crucial juncture.
To
your knowledge, the response of various Indian states to COVID-19 will differ
as the poorest states have the weakest capacity to deliver health services. As
per the expert reports of Health Ministry, after the largest single-day
increase in the number of novel coronavirus cases in India, it has never been
clearer that the pandemic is upon us and the next few weeks are going to throw
up a scenario that many still find hard to imagine.
It
took India forty days to reach the first 50 cases, five more days to reach 100
cases, three more days to reach 150 cases and then just two more days to reach
200 cases. From here on, the juggernaut is going to roll fast. The number of
confirmed cases in India is now doubling in five days or less, down from six
days earlier this month. This puts India in line with trajectories of countries
across the world — in the United States, cases are now doubling every two days.
Italy
discovered its first case 10 days after South Korea. For another 20 days it had
less than 10 cases, even as South Korea’s case count began to rise steadily.
But then in a span of one frightening week, Italy’s case count multiplied a
hundredfold. India needs to try to move
its own growth curve away from the Italy trajectory, and fast, with strict
implementation of the social distancing measures it has already announced, if
not even stricter lockdowns.
At
this rate of growth, and assuming the 3.4 per cent fatality rate relative to
confirmed cases calculated by the World Health Organization, India is headed for
nearly a million confirmed cases by the end of May and over 30,000 deaths.
These are conservative estimates. A team of bio-statisticians used predictive
modelling and estimated that the number could be even higher, reaching nearly a
million cases by 15 May instead.
Realising
the situation, when the Country itself announcing complete lock outs for social
distancing, when almost all the States
announced curfew and complete blocking of towns and districts and
announcing 144 Act , not to allow even five people to gather in a single place,
when public/private transport systems,
including the most essential department Railways completely closing down, it is
pathetic that the Post offices are running , gathering the public in large in a
single place , spreading with Corona virus in large form, against the Nation's
interest.
There
is no relevancy in running the Post offices, when there is complete close down
and arresting of movement. We cannot
book, receive or transmit any mail. Except for withdrawal of money from Savings
account, there is no need of P.O.s to open for public, for that HPOs at HQ may
function with skeleton staff.
We
do not understand, what is the relevancy of our Department to continue to be
named as 'Essential Service', when
almost there is no personal mails from any public and everything termed
as business ; named as Business Directorate ; Parcel Directorate etc and fixing
targets for procuring business and acting as agents to even petty shop owners
for any sales on commission .
It
is the habit of our Department, when asking for facilities for a service
Department, terming as Business and when asking for the facilities of
Commercial establishment, terming this as essential service. This is nothing
but, sheer exploitation of labour. Whatever it may be , now the situation is
very serious, dangerous and involving life risk, and if the Post offices are
opened , it will definitely act as a hub for easy transmission of Corona virus.
It
is ironical to note that different yardstick was taken by the circles, regions
and divisional heads with regard to number of offices being opened during this
period. In some circles, there seems no action at all. The fatal death of a
Postal employee in Punjab circle as reported in the newspaper cannot be ignored
to. The value of human life is more precious and it should not be compromised
in the sake of some prestige. Even though the Department decided to open the
post offices, it could not provide minimum safety measures to the staff and
also to the public attending the POs.
There is no logic to open the delivery post offices when there is no
receipt of mails due to disruptions of transport facilities. There is no
meaning at all to open the RMS and sorting offices.
When
the nation is under the grip of fear due to the spread of corona virus, we
should not contribute the same by opening the post offices and do harm to the
nation. If the opening of post offices mitigates the issues and arrest the
virus, there is a meaning for such action by declaring our service as essential
service. When we open the shop and invite more people to spread the virus, of
course, it is pathetic and doing harm to the nation.
Hence,
in the interest of Nation, public and working staff, we are demanding the
complete closure of all Post offices throughout the Country, till the Govt
announcing normalcy for any free day to day activities. This is for the
interest of the Nation as well as officials who are working under the grip of
fear when the Govt is insisting to maintain social distance. The whole family
of the employees are in distress tension and agony. Hope our demand is
considered immediately, otherwise, there is no other go except to take some
hard decisions in the interest of Nation.
Hoping
for kind action and a line in reply.
With regards,
Yours Sincerely,
(R.N Parashar)
Secretary General,
NFPE
