ARBITRARY ACTION TO RECOVER MONEY IN THE NAME OF CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE

To

The Chief Postmaster General,

Tamilnadu Circle,

Chennai 600 002.

No.P3/Misc.    dt. 08.09.2011.

Respected Madam,

Memorandum submitted to the CPMG, TN Circle on  arbitrary recovery of money from the staff in the name of  contributory negligence, before taking any action on recovery of fraud amount from the  guilty.

It is a known fact to all that  one SAS agent Smt. Devasena, attached with Anna Road HPO  , has obtained the  signatures of the depositors, either in the closure applications or withdrawal forms , has committed frauds to the  tune of Rs.18,00,000.00.The case was reported to the  Police authorities and she has accepted the guilty and  confessed that she has defrauded the amount of her own. The modus operandi, as stated by her, that  she obtained the signatures of the depositors and acted as a messenger in most of the withdrawals. The administration has not taken any efforts so far to confiscate the property or her belongings in order to recover the defrauded the amount from her.

Whereas, the present Chief Postmaster, Anna Road HPO is attempting to fix responsibilities on almost all Pas working in SB Branch of Anna Road HPO, on one pretext  or the other in order to recover the amount in contributory factors , by citing minor lapses or the mistakes left unnoticed, which come under the extenuating factors.

There was no violation of  the statutory rules on this subject and there was no  difference in the signatures available in the  records and the agent was acted as a messenger in most of the cases which was permitted as per SB Rules. However all the PAs and supervisors  have been  tortured  frequently.

This action of the administration is nothing but  to protect the interest of the culprit.  Instead of pursuing the case vigorously  with the Police authorities for early prosecution of the guilty  and with the Revenue authorities  to recover the loss sustained to the Department,  the Chief Postmaster, Anna Road is causing arbitrary and unwarranted actions against  innocents.

It is to mention that the  present action initiated  to recover the loss sustained to the Department from the innocents  is against  to the provisions of Rule 106, 107 and 108 of Volume III and Rule 204 A(1) of Volume III, which stipulates that honest errors shall be  condoned.  This has further been discussed elaborately in FHB Volume I Appendix 4.         

                        

 The Directorate vide  their memo. no. 6/8/59-Disc. Dt. 9.7.59, while  discussing about the recovery under contributory  negligence stated that ‘it is of equal importance that the concept of contributory negligence should be  correctly understood by the Disc. Authorities and there should not be any attempt to somehow or  other  effect recovery of the entire  loss  sustained  by the  Department  by imposing punishments on official who are  guilty of only minor omissions’.

Though the said SAS agent is having  property worth to  Lakhs and Lakhs of  rupees,  no action is taken by the administration  to recover the loss sustained  to the Department from  the said agent,  by moving state  authorities or by confiscating the properties and belongings.   Instead  it is now resorting to cause action to recover the entire  the amount from the innocent officials under one pretext or the other. They know the only way to harass their own staff. This causes  serious concern.

Hence , the  entire staff of Anna Road HPO ,  now  ventilating their grievances by utilizing the form of age old trade union method of demonstration during the lunch hour  on 08.09.2011 against this. Hence the Circle Union requests the Chief PMG , TN Circle   kindly to intervene in this matter and  issue instructions to stop such harassment on the staff by way of  imposing  huge amounts of recovery on them, for the   frauds committed  by  the SAS agent  , besides  instructing  to take suitable  action with the  appropriate authorities so as to confiscate the properties and belongings of the SAS agent,  to recover the loss .

 Thanking you Madam,

Yours faithfully,

 sd/-

(J.RAMAMURTHY)

CIRCLE SECRETARY.

Thanks

NFPE GPO