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)