By D N Singh
After rendering a yeoman service to eight generations spanning over 150 years, the postal service still remains a nostalgia in million minds.
Letters, money orders or telegrams, the postal service remained a dominant feature of communication among millions in the world.
One cannot forget the post man with his khaki uniform cycling down the dusty tracks or on the muddy roads ringing the bell of his bicycle through villages and towns making people come out of the houses for deliveries.
Some good news and some bad but the man in Khaki toils round the year to bring smiles and pain in his shoulder sack and a towel to wipe sweats in summer solstice.
Time has changed and so has the functioning of the postal service. To keep pace with the modern way of communication it has to reinvent its modes of service.
The Department of Posts has transformed itself with the passage of time and the demands of the public.
Technology induction and the addition of new services have made Indian Post a modern and multiple service provider.
Today, it provides banking, insurance, and the last-mile delivery of benefits of several welfare schemes run by the Government to every village through its network of 1.59 lakh Post Offices.
The history of postal service in India dates back to ancient times before a special department was set up for postal services by the British.
It is involved in delivering mail (post), remitting money by money orders, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance coverage under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The DoP also acts as an agent for the Indian government in discharging other services for citizens such as old age pension payments and so on.
About the Author: DN Singh is a Bhubaneswar-based senior journalist.
DISCLAIMER: This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write-up have nothing to do with www.prameyanews.com.
