CHENNAI: Around 8,000 ‘gramin dak sevaks’ from Tamil Nadu will benefit from the financial upgrade scheme which was unveiled by Union Minister of Communications, Railways and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw through video conference on Friday.
“Every sevak will get three financial upgrades on completion of 12, 24 and 36 years of service amounting to Rs 4,320, Rs 5,520, and Rs 7,200 per annum respectively. This is in addition to the remuneration provided in the form of ‘Time-related continuity allowance (TRCA). This will cost the exchequer Rs 18 crore every year,” Vaishnaw said.
The gramin dak sevaks serve as the backbone of the Department of Posts in rural areas and this scheme would benefit 2.56 lakh sevaks.
“Tamil Nadu postal circle has 12,138 post offices of which 9,304 are branch post offices manned by more than 20,000 sevaks. The allowance for the sevaks are fixed on the basis of TRCA,” he added.
Chief postmaster general, Tamil Nadu circle, J Charukesi said majority of the dak sevaks from the state to benefit include women. Of the 20,000 dak sevaks, as many as 10,894 are women and 9,284 are men.
“In 2018, the then defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman struck a chord with gramin dak sevaks of Tamil Nadu by empathizing with them for being paid less and said the revision of their wages by the union government is their right.
The revision in the wage structure was to cost the exchequer Rs 1, 257.75 crore during 2018-19 and 3.07 lakh sevaks were to benefit from it. The postal department in the state received 7.5 lakh applications under Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana launched earlier this month. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is eyeing 25 lakh domestic consumers from the state under the scheme,” she added.