Bruhaspati Samal
Postmaster, Ashoknagar MDG &
Secretary, AIPEU, Gr-C, Bhubaneswar
“It makes the Post Office what under any other
system it never can be the unrestricted means of diffusing knowledge, extending
commerce and promoting in every way the social and intellectual improvement of
the people” stated Lord Dalhousie, the father of India
Post in his Minute dated 30th December, 1851. To prove this
statement, honestly, if one searches about an organization which serves India,
the
land of heterogeneous racial, lingual, religious, and social culture upholding
its rich cultural heritage through religious pluralism protecting the national
unity, social cohesion, secular and federal structure and democratic ethos,
certainly, the name of India Post comes to mind. Competently assisting the
rulers, elite and mercantile community in its various forms in ancient and
medieval times, it has conveniently served both the British rulers and general public in modern times as a
forceful organization in raising national and political consciousness. Long before the times of email and mobile
phones, pigeons, barefoot runners and bullock carts were used to carry messages
from one part of India to another. Prior to independence, India Post, through a
limited work force could be able to develop a vast network of communication even before the Railways and
Telephones were introduced with wide spread impact on the socio-economic life of the nation through
efficient and prompt service.
From pigeon to post, India Post has travelled a long way
with the passage of time. From 23,344 post offices primarily opened in urban
areas prior to independence catering to the needs of Britishers for development
of their trade and exercising control over their vast Indian possessions with
one post office serving 15038 persons covering an area of 53 square miles to
1,54,882 post offices (139182 i.e. 89.86% in rural area and 15700 i.e. 10.14%
in urban area ) having 459948 employees (200344 Departmental and 259604 Gramin
Dak Sewak) as on 31.3.2014, India Post has registered nearly a seven fold
growth during the period of last seven decades focusing its expansion to rural
areas and thus has been acknowledged as the
largest postal network in the world with one post office serving 8221
people in average covering an area of approximately 21.2 sq. kms and
providing postal facilities within reach
of every citizen in the country at affordable prices adopting every mode of
transmission from bare foot to air route with recorded delivery of 1,575 crore mails approximately every year.
The
beginnings of this vast postal network can be traced back to 1727 when the
first post office was set up in Kolkata. Subsequently, General Post Offices
(GPOs) were also set up in the then three Presidencies of Kolkata (1774),
Chennai (1786) and Mumbai (1793). To bring some uniformity amongst the then post
offices, the Indian Post Office Act of 1837 was enacted. This Act was followed
by the more comprehensive Indian Post Office Act of 1854. This Act reformed the
entire fabric of the postal system. Its provisions granted the monopoly of
carrying mail in the British territories in India to the Indian Post Office.
The present postal system in India thus came into existence with the Indian
Post Office Act of 1854. The same year, the Railway Mail Service was introduced
as also the sea mail service from India to Great Britain & China.
Thereafter, the India Post Office Act of 1898 was passed which regulated postal
services in the country. In 1852, the first ever adhesive postage stamps in
Asia were issued in Scinde; these stamps subsequently became famous as the Scinde
Dawks. These stamps were in circulation up to June 1866. On 18th
February,
1911, the world’s first airmail flight - from Allahabad to Naini - took place.
It traversed a distance of 18 kilometers (approx.) across the river Ganges. The
first postage stamp valid across the country was issued on 1st
October,
1854 which provided an affordable and uniform rate of postage based on weight.
Since then, the Department of Posts has proved to be one of the greatest
institutions of the country which plays an important role in the socio-economic
activity of the nation. The postal network of India touches the remotest
corners of the country.
Briefing
the Department’s long journey from pigeon post to e-post, it is evident that
the Department of Posts actively entered into the digital era through counter
mechanization installing 102 personal computer-based MPCMs in 22 selected post
offices during the year 1990 – 91 and conceived the Project Arrow concept in April, 2008 under
“Look & Feel Good” concept. The
Government of India has approved the Department of Posts’ IT Modernization
Project, 2012 with a total outlay of Rs.4909 crore in November, 2012. The IT
Modernization Project aims at modernization and computerization of all post
offices in the country including 129389 Branch Post Offices in rural areas. It
is an ambitious IT transformation project undertaken by the Department of
Posts. By setting up an IT infrastructure spanning across all Post Offices and Branch Post Offices in rural areas,
the Department will be able to harness the
benefits of consolidated information and capabilities
across various functional silos as well as geographical reach. The
transformation from physical to digital network will provide a national asset
for all users apart from Post Offices including various Government Departments,
business houses and citizens to use the IT enabled country wide network for
communication, banking, insurance and service delivery needs. This mega IT driven transformation is the
first of its kind undertaken by any postal operator in the world as well as any
Government Department in the country. Upon completion of this project, the
Department of Posts shall emerge as an engine to transform the rural economic
landscape in the country besides providing value-added mail and financial
services to the urban customers.
The transformation
from physical to digital network will enable the Government to use the
postal network for communication, banking, insurance, mails and service
delivery needs of the citizens. The IT Modernization
Project, particularly the rural ICT solutions will rebuild the rural postal
network to create an institutional last mile infrastructure for delivery of all
government services to citizens. The project will make the
post office the focal point of delivery of social security and employment
guarantee schemes including disbursement of wages under MGNREGS Schemes of the Centre
and State under Direct Benefit Transfer, will provide biometric authentication
of financial transactions
,provide multiple channels like ATM, mobile banking, net-banking for savings
bank customer. It will provide an electronic and secure mode of money transfer
particularly in rural areas. The
Core Banking Solution (CBS) Project will bring facilities of ATM Banking,
Internet Banking, Mobile Banking and Phone Banking to the Post Offices Savings
Bank (POSB) customers to perform transactions 24×7 in ATMs and to transfer
money from their account to any bank account through National
Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). Out of
25493 departmental post offices , India Post has already launched Core Banking
Solution in 2590 post offices as on 30.06.2015.
Digital India Programme is a flagship programme of Government of India
launched in 2014 with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered
society and knowledge economy. The thrust of the Digital India Programme is the
Digital Empowerment of Citizen of India. In Digital India Programme, Department
of Posts has been entrusted to shape up the post offices into a multi service
centre. The Department is digitizing all its 154882 Post Offices including
129389 Gramin Dak Sewak Post Offices. The digitized post office may work as
multi service centre. It may become the nodal centre for the dissemination of
information vis-à-vis Government Policies; disbursement of social security
benefits; financial inclusion of rural mass. These post offices will offer a
digital means of communication, carrying physical goods and money transfers.
The Post is poised to play an
important role in the society bridging the urban rural divide and bringing
IT-enabled services to all sections of the society through 154882 IT-enabled
post offices. The reduction of paper-based processing would enable an
environmentally sustainable greener Post Office.
(Data
Source : indiapost.gov.in)
No comments:
Post a Comment