CSR: Speed Post Services in India – Not So Speedy
“I moved with my husband to Lucknow after his transfer. My mother sent a parcel to our new address through Speed Post. It contained my father’s antique binoculars and some food items from my hometown. The parcel was supposed to arrive in 5 days. When it didn’t arrive for 12 days, we started to get worried. The tracker said, it was in transit. We called up the post office, made several rounds. On the 15th day, the parcel had supposedly reached the post office. We went there. They had no idea where the shipment was. After two hours of checking every package, we found our parcel in a disastrous state. Everything was ruined. The box was torn in several places. The binocular glass was scratched. We decided then and there to never rely on Indian Speed Post,” says Shruti Gupta, an ex Speed Post user.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed on using the Indian postal services over the private courier services. The postal services are certainly affordable. However, the negligent attitude of the employees working for the postal department raises questions about their reliability. The inconvenience people suffer through due to lapses in the service are sometimes unforgivable.
In Dehradun, the postal department lost an entire bag containing about 152 packages. The office had no clue as to where the bag was and when it disappeared. The package carried life-saving medicine for a cancer patient whose family suffered because of this negligence. The employee of the post-office confessed that these incidents were not rare.
In Hyderabad, a user had sent items and a cheque using speed post which was never delivered. On complaining at the consumer forum, he received a reimbursement of 30,000 rupees for the lost package. Shockingly, a grandmother-grandson duo got confirmation of delivery of their fixed deposit cheques from India Post after 2 years.
While the Modi government is emphasising on e-governance and digitisation of services, the state of affairs of the Indian postal department are not in order.
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