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| Klokata GPO |
Having
very largely got the hang of more important areas of Bengal I was back in
Kolkata for the home stretch. It was time for me to get the orders of my
promotion but inexplicably these were being delayed. I knew the Appointments
Committee of the Cabinet had cleared my name and the Department of Personnel
had issued the orders but it was being held up somewhere in the department. I
did not wish to remind anybody, including the Secretary who was only a batch
senior but somewhat cantankerous. Obviously someone had organized a game and I
thought I, too, would play along. The question of availability of vacancies did
not arise as out of the three sanctioned posts all were vacant. In fact, the
Postal Board just did not exist. Only the Secretary who was ex-officio Chairman
could not have constituted the Board.
There
were many instances where the higher officials in the Board were inclined to
play games to bring senior officers including Chief PMGs to grief. There was a
national strike in the middle of 1993 which happened to last for one whole
month. The minister, Sukh Ram, negotiated a settlement and the workers came
back to work. Soon after the resumption of work I started getting letters from
two senior officers of the Board to cut the salaries of employees who had
struck work. I was told that some heads of circles had succumbed to the pressure
and brought to heel, some others had been charge sheeted for not obeying
orders. These gentlemen who were orchestrating their views that the month-long
absence deserved a salary cut had forgotten that after every national strike
the Board issued the necessary orders regarding treatment of the period of
absence. This time, therefore, it was for the Board to issue the orders but, seemingly,
it was trying to fire the guns keeping them on the shoulders of Chief PMGs.
I
resolutely refused to issue any order and wrote back every time that it was for
the Board to issue the orders as it was a nation-wide strike. As luck would
have it, the minister happened to come to Kolkata for a telecom conference
accompanied by a member of the Postal Board who was awaiting orders for
elevation as Secretary. It was from his wing that the letters referred to above
were being issued. As soon as the conversation revolved round to the Postal
strike during the conference I butted in asked him whether there should be a
pay-cut for the strike. Sukh Ram said in very clear terms that there should not
be any pay cut as the issues with the unions were settled in a spirit of
goodwill. I looked at the Member, he had nowhere to hide. Here was a matter
that was resolved by none other than the minister himself and the Board wanted
to punish the employees through the PMGs. The unfairness of it all did not seem
to have occurred to any of the worthies.
I
was asked to hold Kolkata for around six months. But when a vacancy arose in my
own grade at Delhi at the end of six months somebody else who was anchored in
Delhi for years was appointed. Such things happen and when I mentioned this to
the Secretary at Kolkata his response was “not in this vacancy, I say!”. There
was nothing else to do but to cool one’s heels. One couldn’t have picked up a
fight with the Secretary although I had known him from the beginning of my
career.
So
I reconciled myself to a needlessly delayed promotion, not that the promotion
would have given me any far greater amount of money. Instead of September I got
the orders in February – a clear five months of administrative delay. So we
collected our meagre personal effects, said good bye to the office people who
had been very nice to us, said the same to many of our relatives and caught a
flight for Delhi.
*Photo from internet
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