Following was a question raised by one wise Postmaster from Andhra Pradesh Circle soon after 2nd AIC of All India Association of Postmaster Cadre held at Jaipur on 17/08/2014
I
think Postal Directorate is creating confusion among us to protract our
issues. One time they advised us either to continue in the existing
union or join in Supervisors association. This time they are advising
to submit another proposal. I can not understand why Directorate
started dialogue with us when we all are decided to shift to Postal
Supervisors association in the Jaipur Meeting!!!
In this regard reply given by AIAPC, WB Circle was as under:
Initially,
the Directorate has certainly confused us for not to form another
association. They are already facing lots of problems owing to existing
Federations and Unions. At Jaipur, some circles were in favour of
AIAPC and some were in favour of Supervisors Association (GL).
Therefore, our decision was not at all anonymous. Moreover, it was not the decision of real All India too and the decision was taken under following line. “Postmasters will take a readymade platform to take up the local issues and form bodies of All India Association of Supervisors” which itself clarifies that the decision was not of permanent nature. However,
more discussion would be required for taking the decision but we did
not have that opportunity owing to lack of time. Hon’ble Manoj Bhardwaj
was our guest on that day. The discussion should be of our own (AIAPC)
not in presence of our hon’ble guest who was from AIAPS(GL). Therefore,
the discussion was not held keeping our mind open which was practically
held in presence of our hon’ble guest. The Supervisors Association (GL)
is now surviving on the stay order given by the Hon’ble Delhi High
Court. If we all (all Postmaster Cadre officials) together with huge
number of LSG, HSG-II & HSG-I officials join Supervisors Association
(GL) then only the association will survive, otherwise it will perish
away in course of membership verification process ( April-2015) even
they win the case. Then where will we go?
It is agreed that there is ample scope of winning the case [W.P.(C) 1827/1997 against the ambiguous orders of the DOP relating to “Distinct Category” ] by
AIAPS(GL) in view of legal point under Sub-rule ( c ) and (d) (ii) of
Rule 5 of Central Civil Services (Recognition of Service Association)
Rules, 1993. On the other hand there is also huge chance of losing the
case in view of clarification of “Distinct Category” vide the DoPT O.M.
No 3/12/94-JCA, dated 10-3-1995 which is reproduced below:
“This is in continuation of this Department’s O. M. No 2/10/80-JCA, dated 31-1-1994 and O. M. No 2/2/94-JCA, dated 22-4-1994
2. Definition of distinct category
2.1
In terms of Rule 5(c ), membership of a service association has been
restricted to a ‘Distinct Category’ of Government servant having common
interest. It has been clarified in the aforesaid OM that responsibility
of defining ‘Distinct Category’ whose members have commonality of
interest is left to the concerned Ministries/ Departments. In this
connection, it is clarified that while defining ‘Category’, there is
no objection to the existing association retaining their entity or a
‘class’ or ‘group’ being treated as a ‘Category’ , provided there is no
administrative problem or there is no clash of interest among
constituent of the association. It may, however, be ensured that
employees not covered by the provision of CCS(RSA) Rules, 1993, are not
included in any category whatsoever”
This can be construed as the creation of Kashmir Problem from the womb of independent India.
But
whatever may be the result of the case, the extinction of AIAPS(GL) may
happen because most of the supervisors are either active members or
leaders of existing P3 unions. They will remain as unofficial members /
dormant members / unofficial leaders of existing P3 unions in case they
lose the case but will surely not join to AIAPS(GL) as they are doing
now. Obviously we salute the members of AIAPS(GL) for carrying out
the legal battle in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court since 17 years. Perhaps
their legal battle will render us much advantage while making the
Postmaster Cadre as “Distinct Category” keeping no ambiguity like IP
Cadre. Please think why shall we ride on a “sinking boat” which is
visible through a naked eye?
In this regard a simple calculation is given hereunder which may remove the confusion:
Name of cadre
|
No of Posts
|
Name of cadre
|
No of Posts
| |||
LSG (2011)
|
6929
|
PM, Gr-I
|
2097
| |||
HSG-II(2013)
|
1711
|
PM, Gr-II
|
511
| |||
HSG-I (2014)
|
1741
|
PM, Gr-III
|
495
| |||
Individual total
|
10381
|
3103
| ||||
3103
| ||||||
Total Supervisory Posts
|
13484
|
Based on real data
| ||||
35% of Supervisory Posts
|
4719 i.e. the magic number is sufficiently higher than that of total posts in PM Cadre.
| |||||
N.B.:
These 35% members are required based on filled up posts for surviving a
union/association under Sub-rule (d) (i) of Rule 5 of Central Civil
Services (Recognition of Service Association) Rules, 1993 read with Rule
8 of same rule.
| ||||||
Approximate Filled up posts
|
8000
|
2000(almost real data)
| ||||
Total filled up supervisory posts (8000 + 2000)
|
10000
| |||||
35% of filled up Supervisory Posts
|
3500. In this case also the magic number is sufficiently higher than that of total filled up posts in PM Cadre.
| |||||
Presently
the AIAPS(GL) don’t have more than 20 members all over India. They are
not able to manage the support of peoples of their cadre owing to the
statement made in earlier para (underlined). They have to manage the
support of 3500 members hypothetically in course of verification process
(April, 2015). Thus from the statement made in earlier para
(underlined) and above mentioned calculation anyone may realize that
entire community of P M Cadre officials is not able to nourish the
AIAPS(GL) anyway. Moreover, our General Secretary in his 2nd proposal dtd 26/08/2014 addressed to the Directorate clearly mentioned the following para:
It is also mentioned against Clarification 2 of the Directorate’s letter F. No 4-17/2008-SPB-II dated 10th February,
2011, “In case it is decided to discharge the probationer from
Postmaster Grade-I and Grade-II, the official will be reverted to
General Line”. This itself inter-aliaclarifies that the Postmaster Cadre doesn’t belong to General Line in the Postal Wing of the DOP.
Therefore,
joining AIAPS(GL) presently does not have any legal validity since as
per forgoing para the Postmaster Cadre doesn’t belong to General Line in
the Postal Wing of the DOP even though the AIAPS(GL) has already made
necessary amendment in their constitution for entry of P M Cadre
officials which has not yet approved by the Directorate.
Thus
owing to our hurried decision taken in the 2nd AIC (Jaipur), we have
already lost the real spirit of the PM Cadre movement to some extent and
if it continues, it will ultimately die like our first war of
independence in the year 1857. Friends, please realize what happened to
Mother Gandhari by giving premature birth of her 100 babies? Thus
maturity of a movement will take time. “It’s a process, It’s a process and It’s a process: Change takes time”. But don’t deviate, stick on, remain united and determined as “determination leads to success”. So Friends, think twice, thrice even more for our hurried decision. 