(Govt. Orders)

No.17-103/2007-GDS Dated: 24th December,2007
To,
All Heads of Postal Circles.

Subject: Review of conditions imposed on filling up of GDS posts.

Establishment Division and Planning Division of the Directorate had is issues some instructions in the years 2002/2003/2004 whereby certain conditions were imposed in making recruitment in the GDS Cadre. The references of these orders which are under review are as follows:-

(a) Letters No.40-35/Xth Plan-Planning dated 14.8.2003, 23.10.2003 and 17.2.2004.

(b) Letter No.25-3/2003-PE-I dated 1.4.2003

(c) Letter No.17-115/2001-GDS dated 21.10.2002

2. The orders issued form the Planning Division were mainly intended to identify surplus staff in the GDS cadre based on income/cost calculation and thereafter redeploy them while creating new Branch Offices. Orders issued from PE-I Section was with the intention of making a consolidated review of all Branch Offices whereby on work load calculation, manpower found surplus somewhere would be redeployed to Branch Offices where work load wise more staff was required.

3. A review of these orders has revealed that implementation of these orders has resulted in inordinate delay in filling up of vacant posts in GDS category even where they are genuinely required to be filled up. In fact, due to paucity of time, it has been impossible to simultaneously review all the BOs under a Sub-Office, because the only person to do the review is the Sub-Divisional Inspector, who has other urgent work relating to business development, investigation of fraud cases, etc. to attend to, which cannot of GDS posts which have remained unfilled as a result of these orders and it has been found that as on date around 22,212 posts are lying vacant on account of these orders. The resultant impact on services in rural areas has led to strong and repeated protests from the people's representatives etc.

4. It is, therefore, decided with the approval of the competent authority to rescind these orders issued from Planning Section and PE-I Section of the Directorate as referred to in(a) & (b) of the first para. However, the order issued vide No.17-115/2001-GDS dated 21.10.2002, which discourages engagement of substitutes for a long period and stipulates managing the work of GDS vacancies by combination of posts till such time GDS recruitment is finalized will continue to be in force, because these orders are basically intended to discourage the 9parctice of managing the posts with the help of substitutes/outsiders for a long time thereby giving them scope to the Courts for regularization.

Sd/-

(S.K.Chakrabarti)
Dy. Director General