Postal services fighting a lost battle against internet, mobile phones :

VARANASI: The instant electronic age of mobile phones and internet has transformed the world completely. There was a time when bicycle-borne postman was the most-awaited guest to people waiting to hear about their near and dear ones.

The blue-coloured inland letters, envelopes carrying first class mails (ordinary letters with stamps) and postcards are becoming obsolete terms in these times of mobile phones, SMSes, emails and social networking sites.

The world is observing National Postal Week (October 9 to 14) these days.

Postman Deep Singh (53), who delivered, read and wrote hundreds of letters for ordinary people back in 1980's, said, "Nowadays, when I open a letter box even at the busiest of the places, I find only 2-3 mails a day. There was a time when those post boxes were flooded with greeting cards and informal letters."

Dinesh Kumar (name changed), a post office employee at the head post office of the city said, "There used to be lots of mails in the letter boxes. Now even I prefer talking to my relatives on phone than sit down and write letters. Though the cost of inland letters is Rs 2.5 and a postcard is available for only Re 0.5, people still don't buy these cards."

"About 1,94,055 inland letters were sold and supplied to post offices from head post office in Vishwesharganj in 2010. This figure is very low in comparison to the last ten years records," said P K Singh, senior post master of the city.

According to Singh, though the number of first class mails have tremendously decreased due to private couriers, online communication modes, postal services are still considered good for second class mails that include packets, parcels, newspapers and magazines. Rashmi (22), a bank employee, prefers s private courier as it offers surety and timely delivery of articles.

Are private courier services posing challenges to the postal services? Singh said, "The deals of private courier services with small scale enterprises and private offices often pose challenges for the postal department. However, not all private courier service providers have offices in each and every corner of the country; they dispatch the articles via private transport and their men deliver those articles to the consignee, a system which is not always reliable."

However, the business-reply mails, registered post, meghdoot PC services, e-post, VP, and speed posts are still popular. "Under these services, an average of 10,000-12,000 articles are dispatched every month" said Singh.
Why blame the technology?

Why only blame new technology and changing times for the reduction in number of ordinary mails when a number of letter boxes are missing from the city. According to head post office Visheshwarganj, there are only 49 letter boxes in the east region. The residents of Shivaji Nagar cannot tell when they had last see a red-coloured letter box in there locality.

The letter box went missing overnight. Similar is the scene on Ram Katora Road.

Diwakar, student of a private college, said, "The square shaped letter box at Ram Katora Road isn't alive any more."

Besides, many letter boxes are lying without locks, while many haven't been not opened since months.
Shocking was the condition of a letter box, which was without lock, in Mehmoorganj area, very near to a post office.

When TOI contacted senior post master P K Singh about the condition of letter boxes and timely collection of mails, he said, "Sometimes, children put crackers inside the boxes and as in some areas, the number of mails found in the boxes was 1-2, so we have closed those boxes. However, all the 49 boxes will be painted and provided with new locks soon."

National Postal Week: some facts:

# In Switzerland, the world's first postal service was established on October 9, 1874.

# From 1969, the day is being celebrated as World Postal Day.

# In India, the postal department celebrates National Postal Week from October 9 to 14.

# A programme to spread awareness among schoolchildren about inland letters and postal stamps will be held at head post office of the city to mark the event.

Courtesy : The Times of India, October 12, 2011