Wednesday, November 13th, 2024

World Post Day 2024: The fragrance of letters remains intact in the age of messages, know how post offices live up to the expectations of the public.

New Delhi: In the age of mobile and internet, the post office seems so old. But its importance has not diminished. India Post’s reach even today is where even private courier companies have not been able to reach. On World Postal Day, postal historian Arvind Kumar Singh is telling why the post office has remained relevant in everyone’s life in the 21st century.

Sorting letters at the airport

Many people feel that post offices are no longer useful, but if you want to know the importance of post even today, then go to AMPC (Automatic Mail Processing Center) of New Delhi Airport. You will see letters and postal items all around. An experienced postal worker can usually sort 1,000 letters in an hour. But the German machine here sorts 33,000 letters and puts them in boxes. The second machine, Mixed Mail Shorter, sorts 18,000 items of mail an hour. Here, in three shifts, 400 employees sort 3.5 to 4 lakh pieces of postal items day and night and load them on airplanes. Similarly, 2.75 lakh pieces of postal items including about 65,000 speed posts are disposed every day in Kolkata AMPC.

These days the post office is playing such a role.

Indian Postal, though late, has equipped itself with the power of communication and information revolution. Despite the challenges of courier, it has maintained the market share of its speed post service at 40%. Post offices are also providing passport, railway ticket, Aadhaar upgradation, common service centre, payment services related to Aadhaar. All certificates including PAN card are being delivered home. Many state governments are providing many useful services including digital service portal, voter registration, change in details, labor service, pension, employment service. In this way, our post offices are maintaining themselves in the market through various services including postage stamps, speed post, express parcel post. However, very few people know about all these services available in the post office.

big role of finance

At present there are about 26 crore Post Savings Bank accounts in post offices. About Rs 12.68 lakh crore are deposited in these. Apart from this, an amount of Rs 3.66 lakh crore is also deposited in 11.39 crore cash notes. After the slogan ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, the process of opening Sukanya accounts started in post offices. About 3.12 crore Sukanya accounts are in the post office. Post offices are a safe source of investment. More than 5 lakh small savings agents in the country also get work from it. Women savings gained immense popularity with schemes like PPF, Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS) etc.

Keeping in mind the credibility of post offices, the government started India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) on 1 September 2018. The initiative of providing banking services at the doorstep of the general public by providing smartphones and biometric devices to about 2 lakh postmen was quite successful. Now apart from 1000 ATMs, core banking services are being provided. There are also 13,354 Aadhaar and 426 Post Office Passport Seva Centers in post offices. India Post has also tried to increase its capacity by entering the e-commerce market.

Played important role in Corona crisis

he/she worked to provide many doorstep services including mail delivery, post office savings bank and life insurance across the country. Along with the delivery of medicines, ventilators, Covid-19 test kits and other medical equipment were transported to selected places with the help of cargo airlines and its mail motor network. All transport services were halted during the lockdown, yet transactions worth Rs 33,000 crore were made from 2.3 crore savings accounts.

An amount of Rs 452 crore was also distributed through 23 lakh Aadhaar based transactions and Rs 355 crore from 31.5 lakh money orders. India Post Payment Bank disbursed Rs 2,600 crore. Many postal employees died while providing service. For the first time in history, the Postal Department covered 500 km with its vehicles during the lockdown. A system of 22 roads more than 100 km long was created, which made movement of essential goods possible.

The world of letters changed

Letters were once the most powerful means of communication. There was a strange thrill in seeing the postman in the streets. The houses which received more letters had a different status in the society. How much literature has been written on the letters of many writers, politicians and famous people. In 1854, there was an annual movement of 1.20 crore letters in the country, which increased to 1198 crore by 1985-86. Even after the advent of communication revolution, letters amounting to Rs 1550 crore were coming annually. Of course, mobile started destroying the empire of letters. In 2005-06, the letters declined to Rs 670 crore. In the past years, the volume of mail has increased in many services including Speed ​​Post, Business Post. Even after the general postal decline, it is more than Rs 447 crore. There are very few personal letters in these. That is why the campaign to save the letters is going on. The government also organizes competitions to promote literary culture.

Real power of post in villages

Rural areas are the real strength of India Post. After independence, due to liberal government policies, unique post offices opened according to the needs of the villages. In some places, ferry boat post offices, mobile post offices were opened on boats, in hilly villages post offices were opened on ponies and mules and in desert areas, camel post offices were opened. In 1953, a floating post office was opened on Dal Lake for the convenience of tourists in Kashmir. There were many experiments which were successful.

Challenges are no less

There are many challenges before India Post. 91 percent of its budget is spent on salaries and pensions. The revenue of the postal department is a challenging task in today’s times. In 2015-16, its revenue was Rs 12939.79 crore and expenditure was Rs 18946.97 crore. Due to Corona crisis in 2020-21, revenue decreased to Rs 10632.31 crore while expenditure increased to Rs 28,327. After 2018-19, it is facing a very serious challenge in terms of revenue. There are many vacant plots for postal buildings. The postal department is paying more than Rs 106 crore as rent annually. India Post’s hopes of increasing its services in the future require a huge investment to increase the manpower.

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