Photo: S. Subramanium

STAMP OF PROGRESS: Union Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran along with Minister of State for Communications Shakeel Ahmed and Secretary, Posts, R. Ganesan (right) releasing a set of commemorative stamps depicting the letter boxes down the ages during the closing ceremony of the Sesquicentennial Year of India Post in New Delhi on Tuesday .

NEW DELHI: Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday announced plans to computerise all 26,000 departmental post offices in the country. The Minister said he had written to the Prime Minister and the Planning Commission, requesting them to release Rs. 625 crores for the purpose. He made the announcement at the closing ceremony of the sesquicentennial (150th) year of the Postal Department here.

Besides unveiling the new look post box to replace the century-old design of red cylindrical letterboxes, the Minister launched postal services such as corporate e-post and Image Post Office. He also released a set of sesquicentennial thematic stamps along with A-4 size standardised white envelopes suited for business customers. The function also saw the Minister giving away performance awards to various postal circles, postal life insurance awards and Meghdoot awards to employees for excellence in service.

The financial performance awards for this year went to Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana. The sesquicentennial thematic stamps — a set of four commemorative stamps — depict the letterboxes down the ages: the Victorian letterbox, the Penfold letterbox, the cylindrical letterbox and the TV type letterbox. Though the shape and size of the letterbox has changed over time, they are more ubiquitous and visible than any other symbol of state all over the world. The four stamps are in the denomination of Rs. 5.

The A-4 size standardised white envelope with a top opening, bar code serration at the top right corner is priced at Rs. 5 and has a dimension of 220 x 110 mm. The purpose of introducing this envelope is to address the fast growing market of business-to-business and business-to-customer sectors, which require a wider envelope than the old embossed envelopes offered by the Department of Posts.

Speaking on the computerisation programme, Mr. Maran said the computerised and networked backbone of post offices would provide opportunities to the Central and State Governments, the business community and financial and micro credit institutions to use the postal infrastructure for e-governance.

It was planned to re-orient mail services to meet niche customer requirements by providing value additions. "City Post," a competitively priced local mail service, an inter-city mail service with assured next day delivery, and a speed post service between central business districts of major metros with electronic information of delivery facility are also on the anvil. The launch of "immediate money order" proposed next month as an on-line money transmission system will add to the basket of instant products to cater to the customers, Mr. Maran said.

The Secretary of Posts, R. Ganesan, spoke on the occasion. The winners of this year's Meghdoot Awards are: S. Vijaylakshmi, branch postmaster, Kancheepuram (Tamil Nadu); Veer Singh, postman, Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh); Dilip Kumar Ramanlal Modi, postal assistant, Ahmedabad (Gujarat); Gokulhari Banerjee, supervisor, Kolkata; B.P. Ganpathi, systems manager, Postal Training Centre, Mysore (Karnataka); and Adnan Ahmed, assistant postmaster general, Mumbai. Mr. Banerjee donated the reward amount to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

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