M A I N   N E W S

Delhi Govt invokes ESMA
Postal staff firm on ‘fight to finish’
Tribune News Service and agencies

NEW DELHI, Dec 15 — The Delhi Government tonight invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to prohibit strike in postal services, the first state to do so, while the West Bengal administration refused to take recourse to the measure, as the deadline set by the Delhi High Court to end the stir ended.

A day after the Centre declared the strike illegal, the Delhi Government issued the order invoking ESMA to bar strike or agitation by the postal employees for six months.

The order said the Delhi Lt-Governor was satisfied that the services maintained by the employees of the Postal Department in the Capital were “essential” for the life of the people.

Meanwhile, with the indefinite postal strike entering the 11th day and being declared illegal, the Centre today directed the state governments to take necessary steps to maintain law and order.

Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, “Cabinet Secretary has written a letter to all chief secretaries of state asking them to take appropriate measures to maintain law and order situation in the state’’.

Asked whether the government will resort to arrests, Mr Paswan who spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing Infranet 2000 said “The government will take all necessary steps to bring back normalcy in postal services’’.

However, federation leaders spearheading 6,00,000 employees of the Postal Department were adamant. “It is a fight to the finish’’ Chandran Pillai, General Secretary of the National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) told UNI.

The government, invoking the Industrial Dispute Act, branded the strike illegal yesterday, after the Delhi High Court attacked its handling of the strike and told it to end impasse.

The government has asked the unions to call off the strike in order to have meaningful negotiations. The strike is costing the government, a Rs 5 crore a day and is causing hardship for millions of people.  

Earlier in the day the government threatened to take strict action against striking postal employees saying “it was open to the government to take such steps as are warranted for the restoration of essential services, including resorting to ESMA if circumstances so warrant”.

Mr Paswan told the Lok Sabha during a Calling Attention Motion, that the Delhi High Court had also directed that postal services be restored by December 15, 2000.

Dissatisfied by the minister’s reply, CPI(M) members led by Basudeb Acharia and RJD members staged a walkout charging the government with failure to implement the report of the Talwar Committee.

Moving the motion, Mr Acharia and four other members from other parties wanted the government to withdraw its decision to declare the strike illegal and meet the demands for pension and other benefits for extra-departmental agents (EDA) in the postal service.

He said a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Home Minister L.K.Advani had yesterday considered the High Court directions and decided to ensure all necessary action to restore the postal services.

Rejecting the Opposition charge that the government was acting against the interest of the employees, he said his ministry could not meet the demand for grant of pension to extra departmental agents (EDA) since it concerned such workers in the railways and other departments and would lead to opening a pandora’s box.

He said the government had met several demands of postal federations, including those of upgradation, extending special pay to certain categories and undertaking a cadre review.

Mr Paswan further said “negative recommendations” of the Talwar Committee, including downsizing the department having six lakh employees, had not been considered by the government.

TDP member M.V.V.S. Murthy accused the government of being “callous” in mitigating the problems of poor postal employees in rural areas and said inaction on its part would lead to depriving pension to old people as also competitive examination letters to students.

The 11-day old postal strike also had an echo in the Rajya Sabha with the Congress and Left party members attacking the government for its “apathy” towards workers. They described the Delhi High Court’s order on the strike as “erosion of power of executive”.

Members, cutting across party lines, said while the strike had no doubt caused inconvenience to people, at the same time the government should ensure that the just demand of the six lakh postal employees should also be taken into consideration.

CALCUTTA: The West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharya, today said his government would not take recourse to “ any repressive measure” on the striking postal employees even in the event of the Centre instructing to state to apply ESMA.

“My government will not be a party to any repressive measure even if the Centre asks us to apply ESMA”, the Chief Minister told mediapersons at the state secretariat.

Expressing solidarity with the striking employees, Mr Bhattacharya said he had already requested the Centre to negotiate with them on their “just” demands.