People in a queue for purchasing postage stationary at the GPO in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 20: People of the capital city who avail of the service of the General Post Office (GPO) have found that the functioning of the office has gone haywire.

“There is no discipline at all. I had to wait for nearly one hour to send the speed post,” said one Ramahari Das, who frequents the post office.

“After waiting for a long time, when I reached the counter and was about to send the post, the officer sitting there left for lunch,” said a disappointed Das.

People complained of standing long time in the queue.

Das finally managed to send the speed post from another counter.

However, he said there should be a display board mentioning the exact lunch hour of the office employees.

“We are not against the employees going for lunch. We just want to suggest that the lunch hour should be clearly mentioned by them. Had there been a display board mentioning the time for lunch break, there would be much lesser confusion and harassment,” said Das.

When contacted, the officials of the postal department said they would soon put up the display board on the counter mentioning the lunch hour.

“We admit people are facing a lot of problem due to this,” said senior post general manager Naba Kishore Samal.

This time there is a big rush in the GPO to post the rakhis.

“There has been 20 per cent rise in mail inflow during the last seven days,” said Samal.

Postal department sources said nearly 15,000 letters and 5,000 speed posts were being routed through the GPO.

On the other hand, the private couriers are also doing brisk business. “There has been an increase of 5 to 10 per cent business during this time,” said a private courier owner.

“Though this is the age of internet, I still prefer to send rakhis to my brother who stays in Ludhiana,” said one Disha Mohanty.

Receiving a gift brought by a courier is still a thing to cherish, said Disha.

Echoing Disha, another woman Sabita (32) said she too had posted the rakhis to his brothers who stay in Delhi and London.

“Once a year, I avail of the post office,” she said.

To carry on with the increased workload, especially during the season of rakhi, the GPO has opened four counters.

“The people can post their letter from 9am to 5pm at any of the four counters. We are opening another special counter from 5pm to 7.30pm,” Samal said.