BENGALURU: In a bid to rope in government employees to help with Covid-19 management, BBMP recently ordered postal employees of Bengaluru region to report for duty. The move stunned the workforce, as a few had even received summons to work at hospital mortuaries. Postal assistants, postmen and postwomen, totally numbering 1,952, are said to have received the summons over the past ten days, sources said.

What’s worse, higher officials in the postal department were kept in the dark, with messages sent directly to staffers to report for duty at different locations, or face criminal action. BBMP also created WhatsApp groups and posted warning messages on it.

The State is well within its rights to ask any individual, working in a State, Central or private organisation to join its workforce, under Section 56 of the Disaster Management Act 2005. BBMP invoked this when calling around 32,000 staffers across various departments to report for duty a fortnight ago, explains V Anbu Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Administration, BBMP.

“We have exempted the postal department now. We took the step only in the interest of saving lives of Covid patients,” he added. Asked how they managed to get the contact numbers, Kumar said they had been drafted for election duty earlier. “The staff were only asked to report in zones close to their work places for convenience,” he said.

Vandita Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary & Development Commissioner, said, “It was a mistake as postal employees come under Essential Services Act. Orders were passed today to exempt the department.” A few of the postal staff TNIE spoke to were terrified after reading the order. “We were randomly brought together on a group and asked to report. A few got scared and reported for duty. I approached my higher-up for clearance. Many panicked and exited the WhatsApp group,” said an employee. 

This sudden step created much tension, another employee said. “A few were ordered to report for duty at morgues of hospitals,” he explained. Meanwhile, the postal department is neck deep in work. With the State ordering it to open 65,000 postal accounts within a month for those who could not be disbursed social security benefits due to lack of verification, staff are racing against time. “A good number are quarantined after catching the Covid virus. The department comes under the Essential Services Act and cannot be summoned like this,” explained a source.