Some hope from the India Posts

Till a few days ago, I had lost complete interest in the India Posts.  So, on meeting Sanjay Teli, there was no expectation of good news from him.  Sanjay is the friendly packer, who has a small 'gadda' (kiosk) opposite the Mapusa postal complex, at the entrance to the town. "How are things going?" I inquired.

Sanjay showed no sign of enthusiasm.  It has become a habit to complain about how the citizen is not being served.  Business too has been down for some time now.  But then, almost as an afterthought, he mentioned something surprising.  He said that "since a few weeks", the Mapusa sub-office of the India Posts was accepting registered letters and parcels from 9 am to 9 pm.  That is, for rather extended timings. This was true for speed-post items too.

It was something I found hard to believe.  For so many years, some of us who appreciate the importance of the postal services, have been begging, pleading, querying, cajoling, using the RTI and even almost every trick in the book to convince the authorities to have more registration counters, more staff, and longer house of opening.

When the efficient Dr Charles Lobo was the head of the India Posts operations in Goa (he was later the Chief Postmaster General, Karnataka Circle), some action came up on the issue.  A single RTI query revealed that many India Posts outlets were required to keep their mail-booking hours longer than they actually were.  This helped bring in some temporary relief for awhile.

But, after some time, it was back to square one.

The registration counters closed at 3 pm (earlier in village areas).  There were lunch breaks in some places.  This resulted in long queues, frayed tempers, and lengthy delays.  All in all, not a pleasant experience at all.

We don't realise how important a service the India Posts could be.  And, that is not surprising.

In the past, it was said that Goa lived off a 'Money Order economy'.  This was largely in Portuguese times, when many here were dependent on the remittances from relatives outside Goa.

Mail brought in the news.  It kept separated emigration-prone families in touch.  There are even Konkani songs and mandes (plural of 'mando') which talk about crows crying at the doorstep, forewarning that the postman will bring in a letter.

The musicologist Dr Jose Pereira reminds us how the post office was linked with some of the mandde.  In one mando (Flautach’ toqui vazuncha vella), the bride laments: "I send you letters always, because you have gone home.  I often go to the post office, hoping a reply will come."

Such a role has the postal service over the decades.  Ever since it was opened in Goa in 1854, or earlier.  In the late 1980s, as a young journalist, this columnist would write and post on average between five to seven items each day.  Newspaper clippings, post-cards priced at 15 or 25 or 50np, aerogrammes to friends abroad, inland letters, and what not.  We knew the staff of small (Old) Secretariat Post Office almost as if they were friends.

This all changed with time, of course.

Email and internet swooped down on us all, even before we could understand the concept.  Today, even email has got sidetracked by WhatsApp, Instagram or other forms of communication.

Hardly anyone feels the need for posting a letter.  There are far more efficient ways of transferring money, as compared to the good old 'Money Order'.  Even the telegram service, which was once the main means of communication over large distances, was wound up in recent years.

Do you remember the way one had to queue up before the Public Call Office (PCO), to even make a telephone call through to Bombay, in the 1980s or 1990s?

All that is a thing of the past.  New technology has replaced the old.  So India Posts has become redundant.... Or, has it?

The colonial British-crafted postal service is (in some ways) still rather robust, reliable and reasonably priced.  (For many years, an efficient mail-order bookstore was run out of Mapusa, basing its operations on the Indian Post.) In particular, its registered and speed post services are about the most efficient way of getting things across a geographically vast country.

So, a few days back, one was pleasantly surprised to hear from Sanjay Teli that the Mapusa post office had extended their speed-post/registered post timings from 9 am to 9 pm, as mentioned above.

This is a long window.  It gives you a lot of opportunity to get your letters or parcels booked.  Not only that, but because there is a 12-hour window, now the counter-booking works rather efficiently through much of the day.  You don't have to queue up for 45 minutes (like earlier) to send across a single letter.

One or two staff members staff this counter outside regular office hours.  It has the potential to benefit a lot many users.  One only hopes those who could gain are made aware of the same, and use the service to its optimum.

On reaching there around 8 pm one evening, one found the service quick, queue-less and efficient.  There were no crowds, and the clerk at the counter booked the items speedily.

Friends at the Varsha Book Stall (the Bhate brothers) mentioned that the timings had also been extended at Panjim 403001.  One hopes that the same has also been done for other major centres in Goa, including Margao, Vasco and Ponda.

Till a little while back it looked as if people were just busy complaining about postal services in Goa, or had given up completely on the same.

A quick look at what people were saying about India Post's operations in Goa (via Twitter/X) would reveal mostly negative feedback.  While officials proudly told us how the Antarctica Indian station shared the same PIN code as Panjim (Panaji), and their work was officially being appreciated, there were many complaints from the citizens.

Some pointed out to the terrible state the Bambolim Goa 403202 post office was in (2023).  There were complaints about misplaced parcels (this is rare, excepting sometimes when foreign items come through), UPI Payment facilities not available at Margao 403601, the sudden lack of connectivity at Panjim, and the fact that the Bambolim post office 403201 was stopping to take registered items at 3 pm.

Journalist Prakash W Kamat has been raising a number of issues relating to the India Posts, especially via Twitter (now X).  He has highlighted GoaCan's demands to get the Parra post office back in Parra (instead of at Mapusa), and the fact that despite being a State, Goa does not have a postal circle of its own (with all the consequent problems, including employment done via Maharashtra).

With the enhanced timings for registered mail, one hopes the postal authorities in Goa will at least now recognise the importance of this form of its business.  Both to the India Posts, and also to its customers.  Let's hope they do their best to popularise and publicise the same, and work towards badly-needed improvements in the system, the stress and strains (and staff shortages) of India Posts notwithstanding.