Dear Comrades,
The Minister of Communication has
released the Indian Postal Policy 2012 document recently which is nothing but
the replica of the earlier Telecom policy which ruined the telecom totally by unbundling
of all the Government involvement and made it easy for sale to the corporates which
led the telecom into the Corporation and today the sinking boat.
The Minister’s declaration for the
constitution of Postal Development Board consisting the Secretaries of
Department Posts, Department of Economic Affairs , Department of Electronics
and information technology, Department of commerce and two members of the Postal
Board is just to create more power centers which will lead to not to take any
decision under any circumstances and the concept of the Postal as a social
service to common citizens will corrode and crumble and the post will become a
commodity for sale.
Further the other committee Postal
Advisory Council comprising policy makers, Postal operators and other stakeholders
is nothing but to open competition in the service and to form a level playing
field for the couriers aiding them to encroach the Postal service legally by
granting licences.
The other move of the
introduction of public private partnership (PPP) and carrying out the functions
of the couriers like booking and delivery by the post office on a commercial
basis will tantamount the destruction of the age old public utility service.
The importance of Postal will vanish and the Rural poor forfeits the existing
services due to unwarranted competition. Instead of utilizing the abundant infrastructure
and workforce in the Department in improving the service, the Government is now
unleashing to unbundling the existing rights and privileges of the Postal
service for favouring courier lobby and private enterprises. Everyday we are
seeing one after the other scams and loots because of the policy in all sectors
by allowing the PPP.
The aftermath of the globalization
debacles, the western countries are now realizing the need for the Government
services in many sectors and changing their policies by reversing their earlier
decisions. Even the automatic mail processing machines become outdated and were
condemned in western countries whereas the condemned machines are being brought
under the modernization scheme for the utility of Indian Postal Service. The
planners at the top do not realize the seriousness and the impact of such outdated
machines. The AMPC now installed in Delhi is the glaring example for such a bad
decision like introduction of air freighter earlier for carrying mails.
