Shimla: Unable to adapt fast enough to the technology backed new modes of communications, postal services in Himachal are running up huge losses in a financial year and it is only because of its status as a special category state that the service is being kept operational.
Without giving out any figures, Humera Ahmed, chief postmaster general Himachal said that despite many innovative products for residents of the hill state, all the rural post offices were incurring losses.
“In a financial year, to run the postal services in Himachal, the department was incurring as much as 60 percent losses,†she said.
Speaking on the occasion of the ‘World Post Day’ she said that encouraging sales of gold coins at 6 post offices in Shimla circle had encouraged the department of extend the scheme to Una, Kangra and Dehra post offices also.
Laying out plans for celebrating the postal week ahead, Ahmed said that besides all head post offices and sub-post offices at Tehsil headquarters, as many as 264 post offices in the state have been computerized.
There are as many as 18 head post offices, 444 departmental sub-post offices and 2315 extra departmental branch post offices in Himachal, she said.
All the computerized post offices provide e-enabled services, such as e-post, e-MO, Instant Money Order (iMO) and Speednet which provides track and trace facility for speed articles.
The chief postmaster general emphasized that the iMO service in Himachal was extensive and was a facility much suited to the hilly terrain, where distances were often an obstacle for banking and transferring money.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
