Vijayawada: Postal employees want fair deal

Vijayawada: The Postal department has been identified as the emergency service by the Central government and the postal employees have been rendering yeoman service during the pandemic. Still, their services are not recognised and ex-gratia was not paid to the family members of the postal staff who died while discharging their duties during the pandemic, said Sivaji Vasireddy, general secretary of National Association of Postal Employees.

He said in a statement here on Thursday that the central government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the families of postal employees who died on duty but not a single family was given the same.

He recalled that the India Post stood first in the country in delivery logistics related to medicine and medical equipment during the lockdown period.

Referring to the request for immediate compassionate appointment to the children of deceased, he said it was not responded positively so far.

Sivaji said that the postal employees have been demanding for the last several years to provide cashless treatment to them.

He demanded immediate vaccination of all the employees who were discharging duty in precarious conditions. "Several thousands of postal employees died during the first wave throughout the country and more during the second wave so far," he said.

The general secretary deplored the attitude of the Central government in resolving the issues faced by the postal employees. He appealed to the Central government to immediately solve their problems in the larger interest of the postal employees.