Around 300 postal agents staged a dharna near the government guest house on Tuesday, urging the State and Central governments to continue with the practice of providing them with incentives and commissions.
The agents were wearing masks of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. “We wore masks of the late MGR, as he was the one who launched the scheme to provide incentives to postal agents in 1975. Though we are appointed by the State government to collect postal deposits, we don’t get a salary. We have to depend on the incentive,” explained S. Rajpandian, vice president, Tamil Nadu Postal Agents’ Welfare Association.
Earlier while the Central government provided the agents with commissions, the State government gave them incentives. However, following the recommendations of the Shyamala Gopinath Committee, the Tamil Nadu government stopped the incentives. Around the same time, the commissions were reduced, and for some schemes, they were withdrawn altogether.
There are over 42,000 postal agents in the State and 2,000 in the city. Their job involves getting members of the public to enrol for various post office schemes such as the public provident fund monthly income scheme and national savings scheme, public provident fund, time deposit and recurring deposit scheme.
“As it is we are paid the incentive for the previous financial year only in the current year. Despite the increase in the cost of living, postal agents do not want an increase in the incentive but only its restoration,” said Geetha Damodaran, the association’s treasurer.
