Postal Department redefines its role

Chief Postmaster General Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States B. V. Sudhakar, trying his hand at a two-wheeler while launching the first of its kind mechanized letter Box clearance service in Hyderabad at Dak Sadan on Wednesday. Photo: Mohammed Yousuf .

Tirumala Tirupati ‘darshanam’ tickets and non-judicial stamps to be sold in post offices soon. Unlike the popular belief that Internet and mobiles have reduced the usage of Postal Department, personal and business mails were increasing.  

Post offices will soon begin selling Tirumala-Tirupati ‘darshanam’ tickets and also non-judicial stamps (stamp papers).

The Chief Post Master General of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, B.V. Sudhakar, said the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has agreed to sell 1,000 tickets through select post offices in five districts – Chittoor, Vizianagaram, Warangal, Kurnool and Hyderabad – on a pilot basis. 

The number of tickets may go up to 5,000 per day if the TTD agrees later. Training of employees for this purpose is on, he said. 

With regard to sale of non-judicial stamps, he said the Telangana government has accepted the proposals sent to them and non-judicial stamps will be available across all post offices from December first week onwards. Similar proposals were also sent to the Andhra Pradesh government and it is likely to give its nod soon. 

Mr. Sudhakar, who was speaking to the reporters after launching mechanised clearance of letter boxes here on Wednesday, said the Postal Department was sending 10.27 lakh Speed Post articles per month in the two States, of which 5.81 lakh were from Hyderabad alone. It was also handling 17.35 lakh Speed Post deliveries, of which 5.31 lakh were in the city.

Unlike the popular belief that Internet and mobiles have reduced the usage of Postal Department, personal and business mails were increasing. Till last year, 16 lakh letters were handled daily while it has increased to 22.24 lakh per day as per the September 2014 figures, he said. 

Mr. Sudhakar said extreme care was being taken while disbursing money under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. “We disburse Rs. 1,500 crore under the scheme to the beneficiaries. Biometric method is being used to ensure genuineness of the person and later the same is linked to the Aadhar card,” he said, adding that even the social security pensions to the tune of Rs. 450 to Rs. 500 crore per month were disbursed without any hassles. 

Mechanised clearance system to ease delivery 

Under the mechanised clearance of letter boxes, mails are cleared through specially-designed Departmental Mail Motor Services in all the prominent pillar type post boxes under three postal divisions in the city. 

For this purpose, all these post boxes are segregated into 10 beats. Letters collected under this system will be brought directly to the Hyderabad sorting office for onward dispatch to various stations. The mechanised clearance will not only save time, but also speed up the delivery.

Letters are also being cleared in selected post boxes under the ‘Nanyatha’ programme. Under this system, when the letters are cleared, the barcode number kept inside the box is scanned through a mobile phone using android technology.

The information is uploaded on the website ‘http://appost.in/nanyatha’ indicating the time of clearance, number of letters cleared in each box, the person who has cleared and the location. The scheme helps people to know whether the letter posted in a particular box was cleared and when. It is available in Hyderabad and Vijayawada as of now.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com