The telegram is dead but postal services have adapted to changing times to improve business in Meghalaya, says Rajib Roy
ASHUTOSH MUKHERJEE is a rarity. In the age of SMS and twitter, he prefers snail mail to be in touch with people who matter to him.
“Nothing can beat the personal touch in communicating through a postcard or inland letter,” said Mukherjee, in his mid-70s. The Shillong GPO keeps a few of these postal communicators for a minority band of clients keen on holding on to the ‘good old days’.
But their emotions could not save the telegram, once a harbinger of joy or sorrow, from dying on July 15.
“Telegram service was not commercially viable and people were not using it anywhere in the country. So a policy decision was taken to do away with this service,” S Subba Raju, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s divisional engineer (operations and engineering), said.
For the government, viability was also a factor since telegram or ‘taar’ was losing out to mobile telephony, short message services (SMS), internet, fax and other means of instant communication.
Telegram was comparatively costlier as each alphabet was chargeable. “One can say much more through SMSes these days than telegrams,” said KT Sailo, assistant superintendent of posts (business development) at the office of Chief Post Master General, Shillong. He added that the postage and telegraph department was bifurcated from the postal department in the 1980s and was attached to the department of telecommunication. Since then the telegram services were provided by telecommunication department followed by BSNL since its inception in the 21st century.
Rural Meghalaya could barely feel the end of the telegram. “Our internet services have improved in the rural sectors, there are around 225 Common Service Centres in Meghalaya that provide every facilities and services like urgent messages to the rural masses besides rural internet services, mobile services, call centres are available with every facilities,” he said.
But there are fewer takers for ordinary postcards and inland letters, although the sale of business postcards has been increasing. The armed forces were major users of postcards and inland letters but the shift to mobile phones, internet and voice-based services is changing the scenario, Sailo said.
India Posts is facing competition from private operators, but speed post, express parcel, business post, logistic post, air mail, bill mail service, e-post and Western Union money transfer are increasingly doing good business. Mobile money transfer is adding to the business. “We score in reliability, dependability and trustworthiness. Besides, unlike others we have provision for refund/compensation if a customer loses his parcel,” Sailo said.
There are the postal savings schemes, PLI (Postal Life Insurance) and Rural PLI too. “PLI and RPLI ensure maximum benefit of Rs 6,000 and Rs 5,000 per lakh per year. While PLI is for government servants, any rural citizen can subscribe to RPLI.Our premium is less and bonus is high in comparison with other life insurance companies,” Sailo said.
The savings schemes include five-year recurring deposit with interest of 8.3% per annum, time deposit of a maximum five years with interest of 8.2-8.4%. Monthly income scheme with a maximum deposit limit of Rs 4.5lakh per individual and Rs 9lakh jointly yields 8.40% per annum. While a senior citizen scheme entails 9.20% interest on a maximum of Rs 15lakh deposit, the 15-year public provident fund has an interest of 8.70% with a maximum deposit of Rs 1lakh allowed in a financial year.
Sailo said a stronger network and higher penetration has ensured the postal department a customer base wider than that of the banking sector.
But some officials are yet to get over the telegram’s death. “It had a very cherished and fulfilling long service span,” said DP Singh, chief general manager (telecom) of BSNL’s NE-1 Circle, Shillong.
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