Chennai Floods expose lethargy of India Post

Chennai Floods : India Post customer from A&N Island find itself in the list of casualty!

By Debkumar Bhadra | Musings of an Islander |South Andaman

Unprecedented rains, followed by floods, during late November and early December this year wreaked havoc on the residents of the capital city of Tamil Nadu so much so that almost everyone in Chennai, the sprawling city with over 4.6 million people, had been affected one way or the other by the devastating floods caused by torrential rains. It was reported that incessant downpour in the city and other coastal regions of Tamil Nadu have broken records of last 100 years. However two weeks after the city limped backed to normalcy, #indiapost customer from A&N Island find itself in the list of casualty, thanks to the inefficiency and lethargy of postal authorities.

Speed Post articles that landed at Kolkata as early as 3rd December are lying at Kolkata for the past more than two weeks without moving an inch; Concerned India Post authorities say, they are doing their best, but fail to explain what actually is being done to clear the blacklog accumulating at Kolkata. They simply say, they are writing letters to higher authorities. This is how India Post officials at Kolkata and Port Blair, which remained untouched by #ChennaiFloods, operate.

I have been expecting two Speed Post articles booked in my name one from Mumbai and the other from Kolkata. Since those articles were needed urgently, I had been tracking movement of those articles at the India Post website. To my utter dismay, the articles that landed at Kolkata on 3rd December 2015, has not moved an inch during the past two weeks. And mine is not the only case, there are numerous such customers who are facing hardships due to non-delivery of postal articles for over a couple of weeks.

The option left was to file a formal complaint and I did it on 14th December at the India Post website (Complaint # 10006672336 and 10006672301). Also followed it up with emails and telephonic discussion with the Assistant Superintendent of Posts (ASP) Port Blair and the Director of Postal Services (DPS) A&N Islands. “Action is being taken to dispatch the mails from Kolkata” is the reply I received. But on the ground nothing has changed in the past two weeks. It is for this reason people say “India post is known for its lack of professionalism, negligence, prolonged delays in deliveries. It is no more used by any [one] except by other government agencies in India which are similar to India Post in the way they work!”

 Is it not laughable that India Post officials from cities (namely Kolkata and Port Blair) located thousands of kilometers away from Chennai which remained untouched by the deluge is citing Chennai rains for the delay. Had the authorities spoke to the Chief Post Master General of West Bengal Circle, when the issue was first reported in local media, the matter would have been sorted out till this time. It is this unprofessionalism, inefficiency and lethargic attitude on the part of few officials that is bringing disrepute to the entire department.

As if this was not all, the ASP says efforts are on to re-route the postal bags to Chennai for onward transportation to Port Blair! Which obviously means the backlog is not going to be cleared soon. Under such a circumstance, the next logical step would be escalation of the complaint to the next higher level and I am going to do that. @rsprasad, @Ra_THORe, #indiapost

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