IT revolution puts postal dept in loss

The sale of inland letters, post cards and postal envelopes have recorded a

decline by 30 percent due to increase in the number of telephones, cell phones,

e-mail and internet users.

According to postal department sources, earlier there used to be brisk sale

of inland letters, post cards and postal envelopes.

It was a costly and time taking affair to talk to people residing in other

cities on telephone. People had to wait for hours to get trunk call lines. Even

if they had access to the line, people had to virtually shout to convey their

message to the other end.

Thus, even though it was a time consuming affair, people preferred writing

letters to their relatives and friends staying in and outside the country.

However, with the ushering in of IT, telephone was easily accessible and long

distance calls became an easy affair in the form of Subscribers Trunk Dial (STD)

and International Subscribers Trunk Dial (ISTD). At first, it was limited to the

affluent section of the population as it was costly. Moreover, the number of

PCOs, too, was limited and was confined to a few areas of the city. The rural

areas, too, were not well connected. However, the scenario changed within a

couple of years and telephone became a household gadget. Due to opening up of

the sector to private entrepreneurs, the prices of the long distance and

international calls have been decreased. Thus, most of the people now prefer

conveying their messages on phone.

The advent of Internet and e-mail also played a crucial role in more number

of people opting for electronic communication. It was cheap and fast and was

more reliable than the postal letters. The fall in the sale of inland letters

and post cards started for quite sometime now. The post office officials said

that there had been at least 30 per cent fall in the sale of these postal items.

However, there has been a steady increase in other facilities of the postal

department, which have been introduced recently.

The department is earning hefty profits in selling of greetings, UPC and

other such facilities.

Additional Postal Superintendent said that the speed post service, which was

started in the year 1985, has now been extended to many parts of the country.

Even many remote areas too have been brought under its network. Due to the

failure of the private courier services to provide good services to the people

their faith in speed post service has increased.

Last year the Bhopal postal division earned Rs 12 lakh from speed post

service, which has increased to Rs 25.62 lakh this year. At least 25 post

offices in the Bhopal division had speed post facility. Many big institutions

have been extended the facility of making the payment one month after sending

speed post. This has helped in enlarging its network base and also to increase

income of the postal department. This includes organizations like BHEL, SBI,

Income Tax department, BSNL, Makhanlal Chaturvedi University, MP Bhoj Open

University, Professional Examination Board, ICICI, UTI, HDFC, various banks etc.

Cyber News Service


(CNS)