One of the most enduring symbols of India as a
nation is the post man who makes his daily round, come rain or shine. The
famous Malayalam humour writer Gopalakrishnan, who had a long and meritorious
service in the Railways, as well as Kerala’s former Chief Election Officer T N
Jayachandran have written that the first person they befriend on being
transferred to a new place is the post man! Such is the friendliness and charm
of the postal service – one of the most people friendly and accessible of the
Government services.
For more than 150 years,
the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country’s
communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic
development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering
mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance
cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI)
and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The
Department of Posts also acts as an agent for Government of India in
discharging other services for citizens such as wages disbursement of the
unique Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as
well as various old age pension payments.
The Mission Statement of the Postal department
says explicitly that the department will maintain its iconic status as a unique
and trusted national institution by always providing the human touch in all our
interactions with society, being responsive and reliable, demonstrating the
highest order of integrity, honesty, transparency and professionalism and
discharging our responsibilities towards the society in an environment of deep
trust, mutual respect and a culture of service before self.
The latest figures say that there are 1,55, 515 post offices in the country. Of
this 1,39,040 (89.78 percent) are in rural areas and 15,826 (10.22 percent) are in urban areas. This figure includes 25,464 departmental post offices and 1,29,402
extra-departmental branch post offices. At the time of Independence, there were
23,344 post offices. Moreover, these post offices were
mainly in urban areas. The figures show that the network has increased by six
times after Independence, with the focus primarily on rural areas.
On an average, a post office serves an area of
21.23 square kilometres (8.20 sq mi)
and a population of 7,114. This could well make the Indian
Postal System the most widely
distributed postal system in the World. Because of this mind boggling reach and
the ubiquitous presence in remote areas, the Indian postal service is close to
people and the people are close to the postal services!
As far as available records show, by 1861, there were 889 post offices in India.
The system was handling nearly 43 million letters and over
4.5 million newspapers annually. It has to be remembered
that the administration was taken over by the British government from the East
India Company in 1858.
The establishment of the modern postal system
in India can be traced back to the second half of the 18th
century. For the facility of prepayment of postage on letters, 'Copper Tickets'
, pre-paid token stamps in 2 anna value were introduced
from Patna in 1774 by the East India Company during the
period of Warren Hastings, the then Governor General of India.
The postal system, established by Lord Clive
in the year 1766, was further developed by Warren Hastings
by establishing the Calcutta G.P.O. under a Postmaster General in the year 1774. Postal Service was open to the public for the first time.
The first superintendent of the post office
was appointed in 1870 and he was based in Allahabad.
At present, the Department of Posts comes
under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The Postal
Service Board, the apex management body of the Department, comprises the
Chairman and six Members. The Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor to the
Department is a permanent invitee to the Board. The Board is assisted by a
senior staff officer of the Directorate as Secretary to the Board. Deputy
Directors General, Directors and Assistant Directors General provide the
necessary functional support for the Board at the Headquarters.
The world's first official airmail flight took
place in India on 18 February 1911, a
journey of 18 kilometres (11 mi)
lasting 27 minutes. Henri Piquet, a French pilot, carried
about 15 kilograms of mail (approximately 6,000
letters and cards) across the river Ganga from Allahabad to Naini. The mail
thus carries is said to have included a letter addressed to King George the
Fifth. The first floating post office was inaugurated in August 2011
at Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir.
The first adhesive postage stamps in Asia were
issued in the Indian district of Scinde in July 1852 by
the then chief commissioner of the region. The Scinde stamps became known as
Scinde Dawks", dawk being the English spelling of the Hindi word Dak or
(post). These stamps, with a value of 1⁄2-anna, were in
use until June 1866. The first all-India stamps were
issued on 1 October 1854.
At present, the postal department is under the
process of finalizing its IT enablement project. Trends such as urbanisation, increased demand
for financial services, increased funding by the government for the weaker
sections and the rural sector, have opened up new opportunities for the
Department of Posts. This has made necessary the development of new processes
and supporting technology.
The department is also faced with twin
challenges of increasing competition and continuing advances in communication
technology, especially in mobile telephony and the Internet. In order to
provide the best-in-class customer service, deliver new services and improve
operational efficiencies, the Department of Posts has undertaken an end to end
IT Modernization project to equip itself with requisite modern tools and
technologies.
The project, intends to achieve wider reach to
the Indian populace through more customer interaction channels, better customer
service, growth through new lines of business and enhanced IT enablement of
business processes.
The postal identity card is a service offered
by the postal department under clause 63 of the postal
guide. The card is basically meant for the benefit of tourists, traveling
representatives of firms and other members of the public who experience
difficulty in establishing their identity in connection with postal
transactions, e.g., receipt of registered and insured articles and payment of
money orders in the post town through which they pass. These cards will be obtainable
at any head post office by literate persons whose identity is well established
in the locality in which they reside or who can be vouched for by substantial
permanent residents known to the postmaster.
The card will contain a full description of
its holder, his signature and photograph and will be current for a period of
three years from the date of issue. After the expiry of the period of validity
of the card, a fresh card will have to be applied for.
The use of these cards is entirely optional.
Holders will ordinarily receive delivery of postal articles and payment of
money orders on their presentation but in cases of doubt it will be open to
postmasters to make such further enquiry as they may consider necessary to
establish the identity of the applicants.
The cost of application for the card is Rs 20 and the card itself will cost Rs 250. In
order to make the cards more attractive, they are being issued in the form of
plastic cards like smart cards incorporating information like date of birth,
telephone/mobile number and blood group in addition to the address of the
person.
(PIB
Features.)
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