The History of Indian Post Office

The History of Indian Post Office

History

The pillars of the current format of The Indian Postal Services were build under the East India Company. Warren Hastings had taken initiative under East India Company to start the Postal Service in India in 1688 and it was initially established under the name “Company Mail”. On 01/04/1774 the first Post of the Company Post was established at Kolkata in the Dancing House Haveli of Navab Siraju Daula situated in Tank Squire of Kolkata. 

The system was reorganized and the service opened to the East India Company by Warren Hastings, the first governor general of Bengal with supervisory powers over Bombay and Madras, in 1774. A Postmaster General was appointed @ 500/- P.M. Assisted by one Assistant, two clerks, one officer, seven sorters, and 15 postmen were appointed and metal tickets or tokens were issued to pay for the postal charges. The presidencies of Bombay and Madras followed suit.

History of Post Office Saving Bank

Idea of establishing of Postal saving bank in India came into the minds of the authorities in the year 1860 since the schemes of Postal Savings bank introduced in England worked with great success . Foundation laid down in India in 1833 when the first bank was opened in Calcutta. The maximum deposit was limited to Rs.500 at the rate 4.00% with a limit of Rs.3000/-. First District saving banks were introduced from 16.05.1870 in India, work was to be done by presidency banks & their branches where ever they existed & by the District & Tehsildar Treasuries elsewhere.

In 1873, the government savings Bank Act 1873 (5 of 1873) came into existence. In 1881, there were 171 district Banks, 3 Presidency banks, 14 Railway Banks, and 183 Regimental Banks. In 1879, the proposal for introduction of Postal Saving Banks was turned down by the then-D.G, but in 1881, the proposal was revised as a result of which it was decided to introduce Postal Saving Banks in the country.

On 1 April 1882, the Post Office Savings Banks were opened all over India except Presidency of Bombay. In Madras Presidency, it was limited to certain places & in the Bengal Presidency; no P.O SB was established in Calcutta or Howrah. The District Savings Banks were also allowed to function. The immediate result was addition of 4066 PO SB on 31.03.1882. the PO SB had 39129, accounts with a balance of Rs. 27,96,796/- which reached to 26,44,56,655 accounts with balance 6,189,430.26 million as on 31 March 2011 making the post office savings bank the largest bank of the world. On 1 April 1982, PO SB celebrated the 100 year anniversary of its existence, and the Government of India is considering the proposal to open Post Office Banks with core banking in its 1,54,866 PO's.

 

History of Postal Life Insurance

Postal Life Insurance was started in 1884 as a welfare measure for the employees of Posts & Telegraphs Department under Government of India dispatch No. 299 dated 18-10-1882 to the Secretary of State. Due to popularity of its schemes, various departments of Central and State Governments were extended its benefits. Now Postal Life Insurance is open for employees of all central and state government departments, nationalized banks, public sector undertakings, financial institutions, local municipalities and District councils and educational institutions aided by the Government .Due to Popularity of its schemes latter extended for the employees of all central/state Govt. employees. Further extended for the employees of the nationalized banks, semi-Govt., Public Undertaking concerns. It was extended to the all people of rural area on 24-03-1995 with so many attractive schemes.

History of means of mail conveyance

• Pigeons: - Pigeons were used to send messages/mails before 18th century.
• Runners: - On opening First GPO in India on 01.04.1774 four mail routes fixed: 1. Kolkata to Ganjan (now in Orissa) 2. Ganjan to Mushirdabad later up to Pune. 3. Kolkata to Dhaka 4. Kolkata to Banaras & Huts were constructed at every 10 km. distance in between, upon which 3 runners with one Candle Holder( mashalchi) & one Band master(Dhaph) (to keep away the wild animals) were appointed to convey the mails.
• Palanquin (Dholi):- Runners were replaced by Palanquin (Dholi) with 8 Palanquin Bearers (kahars), two Candle Holders( mashalchi’s) & one coolie upon the routes. Charges were Rs. 1/- per mile. A Rs. 445/- was the cost in between Kolkata to Banaras.
• Ships: - Ships were used to convey mails from England to Mumbai (India).
• Boats: - Boats were used to convey mails coming to India from Cadgury to GPO Kolkata.
• Bull Carts/ Horse Tonga: - Runners / Palanquin(Dholi) were replaced with the Bull carts/ horse Tonga for conveying the mails in 1845, in between Allahabad to Kolkata to Delhi. Later extended to Lahore- Peshawar in the year 1850/1855.
• Rails: - Rails used for conveying mails First Rail with Steam Engine in between Howrah to Hugli from 15.08.1854. Later network of rail extended Delhi to Mumbai in the year 1866 & conveyance of mail started with railway. Traveling Post ( now Rail Mail Service) started on 01.05.1864 in between Allahabad- Kanpur & sorting of mails in running trains implemented.
• Public/ State Buses: - Public/State buses are also used for Conveyance of mails from one city to another city.
• Hired Freighter plane: - The world's first official airmail flight took place in India, on 18 February 1911. It was a journey that spanned 18 kilometers and lasted 27 minutes. Henri Piquet, a French pilot, ferried around 15 kilos of mail (approximately 6,000 letters and cards) across the Ganges, from Allahabad to Naini. Included in the historic airmail was a letter to King.Henri Pequet</ref>
• Mail Motor Service:- Mail Motor Service came into existence in 1944 for to & fro of mails from one city to another & within the city to ensure speedy delivery of mail articles. Till date Post Office owns a fleet of 1300 motor vans.
• Owned Freighter plane:- Post Office introduced delivery of mails through Freighter planes w.e.f 29 August 2007 from Kolkata (West Bengal) & the speeder delivery of mail services through its Freighter plane have been provided in foreign countries also.

Project Arrow

Project Arrow was launched in April 2008. The project envisages up gradation of Post Offices in urban and rural areas both in terms of upgrading and enhancing the quality of service in "core areas" and improving their "look and feel". The project aims at creating a conducive and friendly work environment both for the staff and the customers visiting the Post Offices, providing all IT enabled services through secure connectivity, improving the service quality levels in the core business areas e.g. Mail delivery, Remittances both electronic and manual and Postal Savings schemes. The "Look and Feel" activity focuses on improvement in Branding, Information Technology, Human Resource and Infrastructure. So far the Project has been implemented in respect of monitoring of core areas in more than 15,500 Post Offices and "Look and Feel" has been improved in 1,530 Post Offices. The Department of Posts received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2008-09 for “Project Arrow – Transforming India Post” on 21 April 2010.

Technology

The Government has approved the IT modernization project of the Department of Posts for computerization of all its Post Offices, Mail Offices, Administrative and other Offices, establishment of IT infrastructure,and development of software applications. IT modernization project is a PAN India Project covering all the Post Offices throughout India including all Post Offices in North – Eastern and Assam Circles. This project includes supply of rural I C T hardware devices and peripherals to the Branch Post Offices in the rural areas, development of scalable, integrated and modular software covering all the operations of Department of Posts and establishment of IT infrastructure including Data Center, Wide Area Network (WAN) based networking of the departmental Post Offices and Rural Information Communication Technology (Rural I C T) infrastructure for the Post offices in rural areas.

National Postal Policy, 2012

Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, chaired a Round Table on National Postal Policy, 2012 on 1 February 2012. The objective of Round Table was to have a National Postal Policy which reflects the views of the broadest possible range of Postal stakeholders, the participants at the Round Table included stakeholders from Government, Operator`s representative Associations, think tanks academia, users of postal & communication services, Banks, Regulators, transporters and stakeholders in international business. Engaging in discussions with key stakeholders related to the Postal Sector, seeking their inputs to frame a National Postal Policy which will address the interests and concerns of all stakeholders. The Indian Postal Sector requires a comprehensive policy document, representative of the interests of all the stakeholders and driving the postal sector to contribute to the social and economic development of the country.

Computerization and networking

§  To improve service level to the customers, increase productivity of the employees and inter-Alia raise revenues of the Department.

§  To make The Post Office the focal point of delivery of Social Security Schemes of the State.

§  To enable electronic networking of about 1, 30,000 rural Post Offices.

§  To enable paperless transactions for mail, postal banking and insurance services.

§  To enable tracking and tracing of articles meant for delivery.

25000 Departmental Post offices out of 25464 have been computerized from 2006-2007 to 2011- 2012 and the rest are on the verge of computerization. A Plan costing Rs.1877.2 Crores has been formulated to computerize the Post Offices in Rural areas.