INDIA POST GETTING COMPATIBLE WITH CHANGING NEED
Wednesday, 09 October 2013 | BRUHASPATI SAMAL | in Bhubaneswar
If
one searches about an organisation which serves India, a land of
heterogeneous racial, lingual, religious, and social cultures upholding a
rich cultural heritage through religious pluralism and shares sorrows
and happiness of millions of people in as many as 1,652 mother tongues,
inclusive of 18 Constitutional languages, besides protecting national
unity, social cohesion, secular and federal structure and democratic
ethos, certainly, the name of the India Post comes to mind.
Competently
assisting the rulers, elite and mercantile community in its various
forms in ancient and medieval times, it has conveniently served both the
British rulers and general public in modern times as a forceful
organisation in raising national and political consciousness. Long
before the times of email and mobile phones, the mail-runner in earlier
times not only carried people’s messages, but their emotions and hopes.
Prior to independence, the India Post, through a limited work force
could develop a vast network of communication even before the Railways
and Telephones were introduced with widespread impact on the
socio-economic life of the nation through efficient and prompt service.
The days are gone. From pigeon to post, the India Post has travelled a
long way with the passage of time. From 23,344 post offices primarily
opened in urban areas prior to independence catering to the needs of
Britishers for development of their trade and exercising control over
their vast Indian possessions with one post office serving 15,038
persons covering an area of 53 square miles to 1,54,822 post offices
having 4,74,574 employees as on March 31, 2012, the India Post has
registered nearly a seven fold growth during the period of last seven
decades focusing its expansion to rural areas and thus has been
acknowledged as the largest postal network in the world with one post
office serving 7,817 people on an average covering an area of
approximately 21.23 sqkm and providing postal facilities within reach
of every citizen in the country at affordable prices adopting every mode
of transmission from bare foot to air route with recorded delivery of
1,575 crore mails every year.
Going beyond
its traditional products and services of sale of stamps and stationery,
booking and delivery of letters/parcels etc., the India Post has
introduced several new products and services like Speed Post, Express
Parcel Post, Business Post, Media Post, Retail Post, Speed Post Passport
Service, Direct Post, Bill Mail Service, Logistic Post, ePost, iMO,
ePayment, World Net Express etc. which cater to the need of every
citizen.
The National
Postal Policy has been formulated to develop services that assist,
facilitate, enhance and quicken the process of development aimed at
inclusive growth and reposition India Post to become a self-sufficient,
credible, efficient, quick and cost–effective provider of these
services.
Thus, it is
just trying to do more than what it can to stay relevant today. The
India Post entered into the digital era through counter mechanization
installing 102 personal computer-based MPCMs in 22 selected post offices
during the year 1990 – 91 and conceived the Project Arrow concept in
April, 2008 under “Look and Feel Good” concept which has been extended
to 18,600 post offices in 2012-2013 by adding 3,039 post offices for
improvement and monitoring of core operations. The Government has
approved the Department of Posts’ IT Modernization Project with a total
outlay of `4,909 crore in November, 2012 which aims at modernization and
computerization of all post offices in the country, including 129,378
Branch Post Offices in rural areas. For providing Any-where, Any-time
and Any branch banking, Core Banking Solutions (CBS) has been included
in the IT Modernization Project, 2012. The Department of Posts is also
emerging as a potential service provider to other organizations.
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has entrusted the
job of collecting statistics for ascertaining the Rural Price Index. The
Railway Ministry and the Department of Posts have signed a memorandum
of understanding (MoU) for providing railway ticket booking services at
the post offices. The Department of Posts is discharging the
responsibility to disburse the wages to MGNREGS beneficiaries through
Post Office Savings Bank account. In collaboration with NABARD, it is
providing the facility of micro-credit to SHGs. The India Post has tied
up with the State Bank of India to sell its assets and liability
products through identified post offices. Old age pension is being paid
through Post Office Savings Accounts and Money Orders. As a tie-up with
Reliance Money Limited, sale of gold coins has been launched on October
15, 2008 as a part of retail post in selected post offices.
The Department
of Posts has been assisting other public authorities under the Central
Government in implementing the RTI Act by providing services of its
designated Central Assistant Public Information Officers (CAPIOs). For
this, Sub Post Masters at tehsil level act as the Central Assistant
Public Information Officer (CAPIO) for accepting RTI requests and
appeals from all Central Government Departments. Under a partnership
with Deutsche Post, Money Order Videsh was launched by the India Post on
October 24, 2009 to facilitate remittances to foreign countries and
receiving of remittances from foreign countries through post office.
Thus, passing
through ages, the India Post is now facing competition due to emergence
of electronic alternatives, more demanding customers, presence of
organised / unorganised couriers for mail conveyance financial players
like banks and insurance companies and above all the challenges of
globalisation, corporatisation and liberalisation.
Thus, to meet
the challenges and to face the competitors on one hand and to prove
itself as an efficient and reliable communication network as the main
component of the communication infrastructure for playing a crucial
role in the socioeconomic development and integration of the country on
the other, the Postal department is doing a lot of things other than
just delivering letters aiming for a transformation with re-engineering
of business processes and making it compatible to suit the new ICT
solutions and evolving new processes based on customer needs.
(The writer, Postmaster, Ashoknagar Head Post Office, Bhubaneswar, is secretary, All India PostalEmployees’ Union, Group-C, Bhubaneswar.)
