Call letter that came 2 months too late : Impotent Postal Department
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 14 2011 -

In the 10th October, 2011 issue of this paper (English edition), we carried a letter written by one of our readers narrating how he had lost the opportunity to appear in an interview for a job at Mumbai just because the Postal Department delivered his call letter two months too late.

The young man in question here had sat for the written examination of an insurance company based in Mumbai and had made the cut to appear for the interview.

This was when the Postal Department, which touts itself as the most widely distributed postal system in the world with 155,333, offices spread across the country, decided to step in and play truant or throw his future into jeopardy.

The written examination was held on May 22 and the result was announced on July 15. The call letter, as the young man later found out, was despatched from Mumbai on July 29, fixing the interview date on August 30 and it reached the Porompat Post Office on September 29.

The call letter landed at the hands of the young man on October 4.

Two months it took for the letter to travel 3230 kms from Mumbai to Imphal in this age when the general understanding of the world has rightly come to fit the description of a global village, not only through the dotcom understanding but also in the time it takes to spatially move from one location to another.

From the choice of words and the manner in which the matter was penned down, the young man in question may walk through another interview for a job, but this does not free the Postal Department from the guilt of trying to add one more educated youth to the list of the educated unemployed, which is growing with each passing day.

Taking the number of days it took for the call letter to land in the hands of the job seeker as well as the distance covered, it may be roughly calculated that the call letter travelled not more than 54 kms in each 24 hour over the last two months.

It is not very clear whether the delay was at the Imphal General Post Office or before it reached here, but this is besides the point, for the matter of greater import is the manner in which a young man has been robbed of an opportunity that may have just proved to be a major turning point in his life.

This was not the first time that the Postal Department has played truant with the lives of young, job seekers and as if living up to the reputation of everything that has got something to do with the Government, not a single remedial step has been demonstrated.

Damn the public is the message that has unfailingly been rung out in all these cases with not so much as a word of regret, much less take up some steps to fix responsibilities and penalise the errant employees.

The Postal Department in India has a history of its own dating back to 1688 with many an important landmark in its journey to the present age. With its wide reach the Post Office has taken upon itself not only the task of delivering posts but also banking and financial services all over the country.

The question however is whether these additional services have come at the cost of an effective delivery system. In the more then ten years in publication since 1999, The Sangai Express has published quite a number of news stories, detailing how the failure of the Postal Department has thrown the lives of young job seekers into jeopardy and the surprising point is the deafening silence maintained in all these cases.

The silence is symptomatic of a Government Department which is noise and more noise with no substance whatsoever. The cases which have been highlighted have had mostly to do with places that come under Imphal East and West and there may be many more such stories which have gone unpublished, especially in the rural areas and hill districts.

Something has to give. If the manner in which the addresses have been drawn up is confusing to the Postal Department then what is stopping it from approaching the relevant Department ?

And if it has done so then what has been stopping it from pursuing the matter and at the same time giving some publicity so that pressure may be mounted to streamline the postal addresses according to the leikais and leiraks, as per the convenience of the Postal Department ?

Maintaining a stoic silence on this front and compromising with the future of the young job seekers is certainly unacceptable.

Maybe a legal case, which may force the Postal Department to cough up a couple of crores of rupees is what the situation demands.

Or else how many more youngsters should be made to see their hard work and endeavour go up in flames just because of the presence of an impotent Postal Department ?