Hundreds of rural India Post employees, known as Gramin Dak Sevaks, are on strike demanding the immediate implementation of Kamlesh Chandra Committee report recommendations. The protestors have united under the All India Gramin Dak Sevak Union. Postal workers in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been protesting since May 22.
Protestors said the government had been delaying the implementation of the report for nearly two years. “The committee had recommended better retirement benefits, increase in maternity leave from three to six months, and allowances for managing administrative expenditure in branch post offices,” The Hindu quoted M Mathialagan, Madurai divisional secretary of All India Gramin Dak Sevak Union, as saying.
The protestors said they would remain on strike until their demands are met. In Madurai, some protestors were detained and released on Tuesday evening.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asked asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the matter is resolved, The Times of Indiareported.
In Punjab’s Bathinda town, members of the All India Gramin Daak Sewak Union, National Gramin Daak Sewak Union and National Federation Postal Employees Union protested on Monday, The Tribune reported. The demonstrators gathered outside the main postal office and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi near the District Administrative Complex.
“The government has not revised the wages of the rural postal employees, postmen, clerks and class IV employees for the last two years,” Nacchatar Singh Khemuana, a union leader, said.
