CANACONA
Over 1,500 registered articles and normal postal articles have been lying undelivered at the post office in Agonda, as the lone postman proceeded on four days' leave last month and has failed to resume delivery of postal articles.
According to sources at Agonda post office, over 500 registered articles and more than 1,000 normal postal articles are lying undelivered at the post office, prompting several residents to approach the branch post master to enquire about non-delivery of their postal articles.
Enquiries revealed that an Assistant Branch Post-Master ABPM, who was posted sometime in mid-December 2025, left for his native place on a 4-day leave on April 8 on the grounds that he was unwell.
This was, reportedly, the third time he had sought a 4-day leave application and it was expected the ABPM would resume duties as he had done on two previous occasions.
However, the ABPM failed to report for duty and, instead, emailed a medical certificate to extend the leave stating he is unable to join duty until April 30.
The ABPM is supposed to deliver registered and unregistered (normal) post-articles received at the Agonda Post Office, but has to date not reported to duty. As a result, the articles (registered and unregistered), including speed post articles, have been accumulated and are lying in a heap at the post office.
Incidentally, the previous ABPM at the Agonda post office, a resident of Canacona who used to deliver postal articles in the village, had allegedly committed suicide on August 15, 2025.
It is alleged that he was working under pressure and distress over the then newly introduced digital recording of registered articles delivery on the mobile Postal Services App and had even contemplated resigning from the job because he was unable to cope with the workload.
After his demise, a daily wage worker was engaged for postal articles delivery, but he too left the temporary job in about four months after complaining that the meagre salary was not even sufficient to meet his fuel expenses.
Sometime in mid-December 2025, a regular ABPM was transferred to the Agonda post office and had been trained for over a fortnight to acclimatise with the village and residences for the delivery of postal articles.
Sources also informed that the Agonda post office receives a high number of registered and unregistered postal articles. The post office even had a backlog of hundreds of articles when the ABPM had proceeded on leave on April 8. Given his continued absence, the articles have accumulated in heaps at the Agonda Branch Post Office.
