Kerala - Kozhikode   

Plea to reopen post office

Special Correspondent

Local people make plea to Union Minister, Postmaster-General Local people make plea to Union Minister

CLOSED FOR RENOVATION: The Vellayil post office

KOZHIKODE: Postal authorities are being pressured to reopen a post office at Vellayil, which was shut down two years ago for renovation.

People, agitated over the prolonged closure, have sent representations to Union Minister for Communications Dayanidhi Maran and the Postmaster-General in Kozhikode, seeking their help in getting the post office reopened.

The demand to reopen the post office is reportedly now under the active consideration of the Department of Posts. "Our response will be positive," said a source in the department.

Leading the protests is the Choyunni Master Road Residents' Association. The post office, located on Gandhi Road, had been serving the locality for 75 years before it was shifted to the head post office.

The nearest post office for the residents now is at Nadakkavu, which is 2 km away. Nearly 20 retired persons draw their service pension from Vellayil post office, which used to handle more than 400 saving bank accounts and sell postal stamps estimated at Rs. 1,500 a day before being shut down on July 21, 2003.

When closing it down, the authorities had assured the local people that the post office would be reopened after repairs. But even after completing the work, the promise has not been kept.

"It is now a favourite haunt of anti-social elements," says association spokesman Sudheer Sekhar Palakandy.

Those demanding the immediate reopening of the post office say that it was serving several institutions in its neighbourhood.

These included the Telephone Bhavan at Vellayil, the District Industries Centre, Vyduthi Bhavan, All India Radio, the Kozhikode Corporation's Health Centre, Vellayil Railway Station, KDC Bank, Sanmargadarshini Library, the Government Lower Primary and Upper Primary School, Providence Higher Secondary School and business establishments.

The Telephone Bhavan and the District Industries Centre together used to buy postal articles estimated at Rs. 50,000 a month.

The post office building, on 30 cents of land, is owned by the department. "The department is losing revenue heavily because of the closure of this post office," Mr. Palakandy says.

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