DJ Venkatesh & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, May 31: Even as India Post is considered one of the most old and reliable institutions of the country, inordinate delay in dispatch of parcels and mail to Diglipur is drawing criticism for the Head Post Office here.
According to sources, a huge backlog of postal articles and parcels bound for Diglipur from both mainland and inland have been left unattended for the past several months at the Head Post Office owing to shortage of boat services even as the Post Office has taken no initiative to dispatch the articles using road transport means.
According to reports, the Head Post Office dispatches postal articles to Diglipur by boats which sails on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But as the boat services to Diglipur have been disrupted for the past three months, a huge backlog of Diglipur-bound postal articles including Speed Post items and parcels have been created at the Head Post.
The last boat to Diglipur with postal articles sailed on May 14 and since then the Postal Department has taken no steps to dispatch postal articles to Diglipur by either STS or private buses.
“As per rules, the India Post parcels and Speed Post should be delivered in five days. But hundreds of such articles are lying undelivered at the Head Post Office here. Most of the parcels contain items like medicines, machine parts, vehicle parts and urgent documents for school and college students. But due to the apathy of the Postal Department, the posts have not been dispatched to Diglipur for the past several months. During monsoon season, ship services to outer stations are often disrupted and the Postal Department should have made prior arrangement to dispatch the articles via road. As a result of the apathy, hundreds of residents of Diglipur are suffering. In some cases, people even approached the Head Post Office to collect the parcels by hand and produced valid identity cards. But the officials of the Head Post Office declined to handover the parcels claiming that it will be delivered only at Diglipur. Furious residents have now decided to launch a proper forum to register their complaints over poor postal services,” said some residents of Diglipur.
When contacted Mr. Stephen Fernandez, Head Post Master said that the delay is not intentional. He said that as there is no vessel for Diglipur the postal services have suffered a setback but efforts are being made to send all parcels via STS buses, whenever it is possible. “We feel sending parcels via vessel is very safe that is why we prefer vessels,” he added.
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