Chaos at Head Post Office

Tribune News Service, Ludhiana, November 9

Chaos prevailed at the Head Post Office in the city as residents, who had queued up in the morning to exchange their notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination, were declined by the postal staff, which led to heated arguments.

Rinku Sidhu and Gursewak Singh, who had come from bus stand to exchange their notes, found no one to attend to them. When they confronted the postal staff, they were told that transactions were closed today.

Khajan Singh of Shaheed Karnail Singh Nagar was furious after the staff declined to send his parcel. He said he had come to send some medicine to his son, who lived in South India, but the staff declined to accept the parcel.

Hectic activity was witnessed inside the office of senior post master. head post office (city division), SP Pahwa at Bharat Nagar Chowk. An employee rushed into the office and told Pahwa that she was getting numerous calls from people who wanted to invest heavily in Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and other savings schemes of the Postal Department. The manager was quick to respond that they were yet to receive any guidelines.

“We are yet to receive the orders from the authorities.   After receiving the orders, we will visit the bank to collect cash which could be exchanged. We will proceed as per the orders,” said Pahwa. Confusion prevailed over the amount of cash that would be given to the Postal Department for the exchange of currency.  

In the meantime, Darshan Singh, a resident of Civil Lines, complained that the department staff had declined to accept registry posts. 

“This is completely insane. I have an important registered post to make and the employee concerned has refused to do the job. What should I do now?” said a harried Darshan Singh.

A woman who had come to exchange notes said: “We did not realise that we had so much money in the piggy bank of my daughter. A majority of the currency notes were of higher denomination given to her as shagun by elders during her birthday and other auspicious occasions,” said Kanika Gupta, a resident of Civil Lines.

Source : http://www.tribuneindia.com