India Post Cadre Restructuring Report: Major Recommendations for PA, SA, LSG, HSG-II & HSG-I
India Post Cadre Restructuring Report (Part-II): Committee Submits Comprehensive Recommendations for PA/SA, LSG, HSG-II & HSG-I Cadres
The Department of Posts has released Part-II of the Comprehensive Report of the Committee on Cadre Restructuring covering Postal Assistants (PA), Sorting Assistants (SA), Lower Selection Grade (LSG), Higher Selection Grade-II (HSG-II), and Higher Selection Grade-I (HSG-I) posts across Post Offices (POs), Railway Mail Service (RMS), and Circle/Regional Offices (CO/RO). The committee was chaired by Shri K. Prakash, Chief Postmaster General, Karnataka Circle, with Shri G. Natarajan and Ms. Kaiya Arora as members.
Download India Post Cadre Restructuring Report 2025 in PDF
Background9
The report highlights that while the 2016 Cadre Restructuring significantly improved promotional opportunities for Postal Assistants on the Postal side, similar restructuring for RMS, SBCO, and Circle/Regional Offices could not be implemented due to the need for stronger functional justification sought by the Department of Expenditure. As a result, employees in these wings have continued to experience stagnation and limited promotional avenues.
Purpose of the Committee
The committee was constituted in 2025 to undertake a composite cadre review with the following objectives:
- Review and restructure PA/SA, LSG, HSG-II, and HSG-I cadres.
- Create a balanced pyramidal promotional structure.
- Provide functional justification for supervisory posts.
- Protect the strength of feeder cadres.
- Ensure compliance with DoPT and Department of Expenditure guidelines.
- Improve career progression while maintaining financial prudence.
Key Areas Covered
The 161-page report provides an extensive examination of:
- Earlier Cadre Restructuring Committees, including the V.P. Singh Committee (2014) and Charles Lobo Committee (2019–2021).
- Stakeholder representations from various staff unions and associations.
- Data analysis covering Postal, RMS, and CO/RO establishments.
- Recruitment Rules and promotional norms.
- Functional role analysis of PA, SA, LSG, HSG-II, and HSG-I officials.
- Observations on stagnation, vacancies, cadre imbalance, and technological transformation.
- Final recommendations for restructuring and supervisory strength.
Major Recommendations
The Committee has proposed several important reforms, including:
- Merger of Postal Assistant and Sorting Assistant cadres into a unified cadre.
- Rationalisation of supervisory posts, targeting a supervisory strength of 31.58% of the unified cadre.
- Restructuring of grades to improve promotional opportunities.
- Revised recruitment and training framework for the unified cadre.
- Improved promotion policy and training for supervisory grades.
- New guidelines for fixing inter-se seniority.
- Redesign of work norms for supervisory posts based on present operational requirements.
Significance
The report acknowledges that India Post has undergone rapid transformation through IT modernisation, parcel business expansion, financial services, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), and digital operations. The committee believes that the existing cadre structure no longer adequately supports these evolving responsibilities. The proposed reforms aim to create a modern, efficient, and equitable promotional framework while reducing stagnation and strengthening supervisory capacity across all operational wings.
Source: Comprehensive Report of the Committee on Cadre Restructuring of PA/SA, LSG, HSG-II and HSG-I Posts in Post Offices, Railway Mail Service Offices and Circle/Regional Offices (Part-II).