Dear Comrades,
Jorhat, April 28: The head post offices of Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar districts were paralysed today as employees abstained from work, protesting the arrest of 11 colleagues of the Jorhat post office, including the postmaster, on Wednesday.
The employees were arrested after police recovered 115 Common Entrance Examinations forms (for engineering and medical) along with 20 envelope covers (without forms inside) from the official almirahs and drawers of the employees. The post office authorities had claimed that the entire stock of 1,200 forms had been distributed.
The examination, to be conducted by Dibrugarh University, is scheduled for May 21 and 22. Six employees were arrested from the Jorhat head post office in the afternoon, while five others named in the FIR lodged by the district administration, surrendered at Jorhat police station last night.
A case (262/11) had been registered under Sections 188, 167 and 418 of the IPC. Five were granted bail last night itself while six others were questioned and are expected to be granted bail by this evening. Many people, who came to the post offices for various transactions, including a large number of candidates who came to deposit the forms, were seen waiting outside the Jorhat post office late till 2pm today, after which the main entrance door of the office was opened.
However, the forms were not accepted today and the authorities said the same would be done from tomorrow by allotting separate counters. The last date for submission of the forms is May 4. Though the employees had called for ceasework till 1pm today in the three head post offices of the districts, work started only after 2pm.
Secretary of the Sivasagar circle unit of the All India Postal Employees’ Union, Dhrubajyoti Hazarika, said the ceasework decision was taken to protest against the “unjust arrest” of the employees. He said the employees had never kept aside the forms with any wrong intention, but for their own wards or close relatives and friends. He denied there was any “black” sale of forms.
“As they (the post office staff) had no time to stand in the queue, a handful of forms was kept aside. All the forms were bought by paying the usual amount,” Hazarika said. He also said the employees today wore black badges as a form of protest. The Jorhat district unit of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) expressed its concern over yesterday’s incident and suspension of work today.
Dhrubajyoti Hazarika, the AASU general secretary (Jorhat district unit), said the employees should not support those involved in malpractice. Yesterday, parents and candidates, who did not get forms, were not convinced with the authorities’ announcement that the forms were over.
They approached the Jorhat deputy commissioner, who deputed an additional deputy commissioner along with an executive magistrate. A police team searched the offices and recovered the forms. Later, all the 115 forms were re-issued by executive magistrate Lisa Talukdar to other candidates.
The Telegraph, Kolkata
