Post for Planet

(World Post Day - October 9)

Manish Gajbhiye

Aurangabad, Oct 8:

The introduction of the postal department was a unique revolution in the world for connecting the people. World Post Day is celebrated on October 9. The theme this year is ‘Post for Planet’, which intends to connect governments, businesses and people across the globe. Over the years, the post has been a unique medium of connecting people and the contribution of the postal department workers in it is commendable. In India, the history of the post department is almost more than 150 years old.

Aurangabad postal division

Although today the importance of sending letters to friends and relatives residing far away has diminished in the urban areas due to the use of advanced technologies, it has not decreased a bit in the rural areas.

The Aurangabad postal division renders services to Aurangabad and Jalna districts, covering a population of 56,60,327 people including 7,01,282 in Aurangabad and 19,59,046 in Jalna. There are two head post offices, one in Aurangabad and another in Jalna. In all, 17,825 geographical areas are covered.

Technology at a glance

E-post Seva is the service that provides services of delivering letters to various government departments, businesses, and the people. The government recruitment application processes and office correspondence are entirely depended on the postal department. E-money order is a new initiative through which one can send money anywhere in the country without doing any paperwork as the service is operated through the online system. In the Indian postal Banking service, one can open a postal bank account with a minimum balance of Rs 500. The bank also operated the ATM system and the credit and debit cards of the post department can be operated in the ATMs of any bank. The postal department also operates a customer service centre system through which people can pay electricity bills, telephone bills, Aadhaar enrollment, and other facilities. The postal department has a tie-up with Tata AIG Insurance company and provides Life, health, vehicle, and accidental insurance policies as well. It also has a tie-up with Amazon and provides deliveries of online shopping articles on the cash on delivery basis. For those who had purchased the articles online with advance payments, the department also delivers it through its parcel service.

The postal department has adopted new technology

The postal department has adopted advanced technology and is trying to provide paperless services to the people. Various services are provided through e-Seva, e-money order, customer service centres and Indian Postal Banking services. People can open an account with a minimum balance of Rs 500 and for the cheque service, the minimum balance in the account is Rs 1,000. Similarly, people can also avail of insurance, provident funds, and online shopping facilities through the department now.

- Sanjay Tathe, Asst. Superintendent of Post Offices

Work should be evaluated on actual work done

The Indian postal department has introduced various new services. However, the payment of the postmen and the other staff are evaluated on the old basis of deliveries of letters. However, the workload on the postmen has increased considerably, but it is not proportionate to the work they do. There are around 180 postmen in the division but around 80 posts are still vacant. We demand that these post should be filled soon.

- Devendra Pardeshi, Deputy Circle Secretary, All India Postal Employees union Postman & MTS, Maharashtra - Goa Circle