question_answer

Write a detailed note on various facilities offered by Indian Postal Department.

Answer:

Ans.     Indian Post and Telegraph Department provides various postal services all over India. India has been divided into 22 postal circles for this. There are 1,54,149 post offices in India. It has 5,64,701 letter boxes, which transmits 1575 crore mails every year. 5,01,716 villages have a public telephone and 26000 post offices are connected through the network. It links major 97 countries across the world. It provides speed post facility for over 1000 destinations in India. Facilities of postal department are broadly divided into:

(a) Financial Facilities: Post and Telegraph Department provides financial services using post office's saving schemes like Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificate, normal retail banking functions of monthly income schemes, recurring deposit account, savings account, time deposits and money order facility etc.

(b) Mail Facilities: It consists of parcel facilities which consists of transmission of articles from one place to another which can be registered and insured. It also provides facilities for greeting post, (a range of delightful greeting card on all occasions) and Media Post (a way for Indian corporate to advertise their brands through aerograms, telegrams and letterboxes).

(c) International Money Transfers: It enables money transfer from 185 countries in collaboration with Western Union Money Transfer.

(d) Passport Facilities: It has joint hands with Ministry of External Affairs and accepts application for passport.

(e) Speed Post: It has more than 1000 destinations in India. It covers 97 major countries of the world.

(f) E-Bill Post: It is the latest addition in facilities by Indian Post whereby it collects bill payment across the counter for BSNL and Bharti Airtel.