http://www.bagchiblog.blogspot.com
 |
| Nagpur GPO |
I
was back in Nagpur in March 1978. This was about 17 years after I left the
place which. I had to do as I was given a regular posting at Ahmedabad after
completion of the two-year training. Nagpur was the place where I cut my teeth
in the Department.It was something special for me.I kept coming back to the
place for some reason or the other even during the intervening two years. Here,
after all,I had lost my father in 1962. This time I came here as a middle-level
officer in the Junior Administrative Grade of the Service in charge of a region
of the Maharashtra Postal Circle.
Maharashtra
had four regions each headed by a Director in Junior Administrative Grade with
more or less like numbers of divisions or units under each. All the regions
barring Nagpur had their headquarters located at the circle or state
headquarters in what was till then known as Bombay. In fact, under a new
experiment three regions of the country, viz. Kanpur, Coimbatore and Nagpur
were detached from the headquarters and were brought closer to the units they
were required to supervise and control. It was generally because of the
insistence of the officers concerned that the regional headquarters were soon
wound up with Nagpur standing out as the only region continuing to exist away
from the state-level headquarters. The credit for this deviation has to go to
the local staff unions which fought tooth and nail to keep the regional
headquarters close to them. To say that the Nagpur Unions were strong would,
therefore, be an understatement. That is precisely why the post of Director
Nagpur had remained vacant for months as no officer would like to accept it. It
was in these circumstances that I landed up at Nagpur.
Things
had changed quite drastically since I left Nagpur in 1963. The PMG’s office was
moved to Bhopal and the units of Vidarbha Region were put under PMG Bombay.
This had to happen after the Re-organisation of States on linguistic basis in
1956. The entire upper floor of Nagpur GPO that was in occupation of the PMG’s
office fell vacant and was occupied by the non-operational branches of the GPO,
short of accommodation as it was. Since there were no posts of PMG and
directors the sprawling bungalows in Civil Lines and the Seminary Hills were
made use of to build staff quarters. I had, therefore, no place to stay and had
to hire accommodation. The regional office that came into existence during the
interregnum too was accommodated in a cramped space on top of a sub-post
office.
Vidarbha
districts had very little to commend themselves. Inhabited largely by
Maharashtrians, the district headquarters gave an appearance of poverty,
besides I found them filthy. Nagpur had hardly changed in appearance. Earlier
known as “the largest village in Asia” its appearance had not changed during
the intervening sixteen or seventeen years. Nonetheless, it continued to be the
biggest market in Central India – after Indore. Vidarbha thus was a backward
region and the departmental establishments also reflected the same
backwardness. It needed to be lifted from its boot straps.
Soon
after I took over the PMG was transferred to Delhi. He took a flight that
touched Nagpur on the way. That’s when he thanked me for opting for Nagpur as
he said he was being inundated by telegrams by various staff unions of
different levels. But, he said, soon after I joined the telegrams stopped. He
was sympathetic to them and said my predecessors had not given them anything.
One couldn’t always look at the demands of the unions with a pre—conceived
negativity. The telegrams did stop but the tide had turned in my direction.
Everyday some union or the other would land up with some petty demands. With
show of some understanding, they would leave happily having been able to
extract an unofficial meeting from the regional director.
There,
indeed, was a long list of their demands – some petty and others somewhat
weighty. Slowly, with hard work and dedication of the officers of the
inspectors’ cadres, we could nibble away at the long list of demands. Within
six months or so the union meetings at my level had no pending item but a
meeting would be held nonetheless. Nobody wanted to forego the tea and biscuits
at government expense. Likewise, I used to travel overnight to Bombay to attend
the quarterly meetings of the unions with the head of the circle but my region
would have no item.
While
I put the sub-divisional inspectors on the job to bring about operational
efficiency I advised the superintendents to choose some big offices for
improvement in their ambience. During my casual visits I saw how miserable the
office furniture were and naturally the staff wouldn’t like to hang around for
a minute more than what was necessary. I asked them to use sunmica – a kind of
laminate – for topping up the working tables and give the rest much needed coat
of varnish. I also suggested the use of air coolers which were available
practically everywhere. Vidarbha is a hot place with the noon temperature often
topping 45 degrees Celsius in summers. In that heat the offices were still
using the khascurtains to be watered by a daily-wage employee. I thought this
had to change as better working environment was likely to improve the standard
of performance.
Most
dramatic change took place at the Nagpur GPO where the staff and officers
seemed to have been infused with new enthusiasm. While the massive front yard
which once had a lawn was being worked on by the P&T Civil Engineering wing
preparing flower beds and re-grassing the dried up lawns inside the office
carpenters were busy with rolls of sunmica to be glued on table tops. The
contractor himself was seen supervising scraping off of old accumulated layers
of paint and polish which had successfully concealed the beautiful and even
grains of the around 70 years old CP teak
counters. The potential of the heritage counters was knowneven as it was
thoughtlessly overlaid with layers and layers of paint and polish.
I
had told the Postmaster of the GPO, who was of gazetted rank that he would have
to get rid of the Khas curtains and the complementary daily-wage staff for the
summer. True enough during another visit to the GPO I saw massive coolers at
twoends of the office were being tested. The effect was remarkable. It was the
month of April when day temperatures cross 42 degrees Celsius. Inside that
massive hall it was very comfortable, in fact, a trifle too cool. No wonder,
later I was informed that even in May they would shut off the coolers for a
while when the temperature outside would be around 46 degrees Celsius.
(to be continued)
(to be continued)
*Photo from internet
No comments:
Post a Comment