TIRUNELVELI/TENKASI: Rural postal employees alleged that impractical business targets have severely affected their physical and mental health. Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) employees, including Branch Postmasters, Assistant Branch Postmasters and Dak Sevaks, claimed their higher officials assign them unrealistic targets for opening India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) accounts, Postal Life Insurance (PLI) policies, as well as Recurring Deposit, Time Deposit and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts.
Several of them said they have opened accounts in their relatives’ names by spending money from their own pockets in order to meet the targets.
Speaking to the TNIE, a woman GDS from Tirunelveli said that the higher officials to whom they report were denying them emergency leave, citing incomplete targets.
“During the past financial year, each of us was instructed to open 300 accounts, which was unachievable. Now, the officials have increased the target to 450 accounts. Accordingly, the administration sets monthly and weekly targets, making our lives miserable,” she added.
“The villagers are mostly daily wagers. Our higher officials ask us to persuade them to enrol in Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) with an annual premium of Rs 50,000. We are forced to open at least five such accounts within a short span. Most villagers do not know about insurance schemes. How is it possible to convince them? When we force form, some farmers purchase insurance policies with the minimum premium and fail to renew them in the second year. It is a huge loss to them,” said another woman GDS from Tenkasi district.
A male GDS said many of them have decided to quit their jobs. “We heard that recently a GDS in Andhra Pradesh ended her life allegedly due to pressure from the administration. We were recruited on merit on the basis of our SSLC marks. Many of us are graduates and postgraduates. However, the India Post administration treats us like slaves. Officially, we are supposed to work for five hours a day. But we have to work for more than 12 hours to meet our targets. Even when we return from leave after attending family functions such as marriages, we are questioned about whether we completed our targets during the leave,” he added.
The GDSes said that even those with 25 years of experience draw around Rs 25,000 of salary. “We are asked to attend frequent meetings being organised at our headquarters. However, we are not given any travelling allowances to attend them. We have to allocate a portion of our salary for travel. BPMs have to bear the rental expenses of post offices. We are threatened with suspension if we failed to meet the targets and raise questions against the officials,” said a GDS.
When contacted by the TNIE, an official from the office of the Postmaster General of Southern Regions (Madurai) refuted their allegations. “The target for the GDS is set to meet the Expenditure Coverage Ratio. We are spending around Rs 3 lakh to run a two-member post office. A majority of the post offices are meeting only 20% of the ratio. We are trying to increase it to 33%. Only one office in our region is earning more than 50%. When the GDSes do more business, they are given an entitled incentive. Some GDSes even earn up to Rs 1 lakh as incentive,” the official said.
