PONDA: Seven Goan employees of India Post, who were working at the Ponda Post Office on a temporary basis, were suddenly retrenched, and allegedly replaced with staff from Maharashtra.
The seven, who held a protest against the lay-offs on Monday, have been contract employees of India Post for different time periods, ranging from 8 to 18 years.
Speaking on behalf of the retrenched employees, advocate Surel Tilve called for the intervention of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant ‘to deliver justice to local Goans’. “A double-engine government is functioning in Goa. Recently, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman said that only staff with knowledge of the local language should be employed in banks. The same should apply to postal services as well,” said Tilve, adding that the seven Goans have worked for India Post for 8 to 18 years, and have now rudely been replaced with India Post employees from Maharashtra. “This is a conspiracy to bring unemployment to Goan youth. Further, this recruitment of staff from another State will inconvenience the public, as they may not know their way around Ponda, and this will cause a delay in delivering important mail like RTO notices or employment letters,” he added.
On Monday, the seven men were asked to surrender their service mobile phones, and received their relieving letters. One of them, Sandesh Salgaonkar, said they had met with Union Minister Shripad Naik, South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha and Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, besides Goa CM Sawant, before the Covid-19 pandemic, and convinced them to halt their retrenchment then. “Today, we were shocked to learn that we had been replaced with staff from another State. Though the post office is under the Central Government, the income it generates is from Goans, and so, Goans should get first preference for employment,” said Salgaonkar.
The Postmaster in-charge of the Ponda Post Office remained unavailable for comment, despite repeated attempts.
