Fit for a museum?

Aug. 23: Googled and Yahooed almost out of existence, the snail mail has lost its patrons not only among letter writers but also in the government. Or so it seems.

Put out of business by the email and SMS generation, the postal directorate is resorting to all sorts of cost-cutting measures, including downgradation of post offices.

The latest victim of the postal directorate’s stringency is the Silchar divisional post office.

On August 9, the Silchar office of the Assam chief postmaster general received a terse message from the directorate of posts and telegraph, stating that the Silchar divisional post office had been downgraded to the level of an office of the superintendent of post offices.

This operatively means the top official of Silchar divisional set-up will now be relegated to the status of superintendent of post offices from the earlier position of senior superintendent.

The Silchar divisional office controls the post offices of Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and the North Cachar Hills.

A wave of protests ran through the department after the order arrived.

“Unjust and totally arbitrary,” was how most postal workers described the move.

But what peeved them most was that the order from New Delhi came with no concrete explanation.

Senior officers, however, have been trying to look for the missing “why”.

Cash-crunch could be a reason why the India Posts is shrinking the status of its offices across the country, reasoned an officer at Silchar.

Plunging revenue and stiff competition from courier agencies have only added to the postal department’s financial woes.

Assam has six divisional offices under the Assam chief post master general.

But the axe has fallen on Silchar divisional post office alone.

In fact, rejecting funds crunch as a probable reason for downgradation, officials said the Silchar divisional post office has been earning enough to deserve its status.

Last year alone. it earned Rs 2 crore, which the officials claimed was the highest in the state.

The distraught officials of Silchar divisional post office met Sontosh Mohan Dev, the Union minister of heavy industries, during his tour of Cachar last week and pleaded for his intervention to stall this downgrading exercise.

The Silchar divisional post office, whose status was upgraded in 1984 when Dev was the Union minister for communications, has under its jurisdiction three head post offices, two main post offices and 103 sub post offices.

Dev reportedly spoke to Union communications minister A. Raja, but Silchar has received no intimation from New Delhi as yet.

The employees fear that the move will put future recruitment at this office on hold.

The three principal employees’ unions, the National Union of Postal Employees, All India Postal Employees Federation and the Bharatiya Postal Employees Union, have now decided to launch an agitation if the order is not revoked.