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/
