By Express News Service - HYDERABAD
12th February 2013 07:51 AM
One might think that in this era of emails and video chats, a postman does not have any work. But, ironically, he has been overburdened with it in the city so much so that he has been working without offs for the last one year! Well, not all postmen but a good many and all that they get in return is an incentive. Wondering why so much work for this age-old community friend? It’s the Aadhaar frenzy which doesn’t seem to leave anyone in peace.
There are about 1,100 postmen in about 100 post-offices in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. They are being flooded with Aadhaar cards due for delivery. On an average, every year, a humble post-office handles about 6,000 articles excluding ordinary post. Now, the post-offices are expected to deliver around 55,000 Aadhaar cards every month! “By delivering about 200 articles a day for six days... in four weeks, I will be able to deliver 4,800 cards a month. What is the number of cards to be dispatched?” asked one postman who preferred to remain anonymous.
According to the AP circle of India Post, around 61,689 cards from Phase-1 out of the total 89,84,000 enrolments from Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts are yet to be delivered. “Aadhaar is additional work. And postmen have been putting in a lot of effort to deliver the cards,” said K Sandhya Rani, postmaster general (business development, technology and marketing), adding, “the public and institutions need to be realistic in their approach. Delivery of Aadhaar is not like election duty. It is like a never-ending work.”
However, she downplayed the need for more manpower. In the wake of rising complaints, the department has hired temporary staff, not just for the delivery but also for uploading data after delivery. Grameen Dak Sevak staff are working as mail carriers, delivery agents and postmasters in the absence of regular staff whereas additional incentives are being given for those who work on Sundays.
Defending India Post against accusations of late delivery of Aadhaar cards, she explained, “The delay is also due to delay in generation of cards by UIDAI. If the date of enrolment and date of generation of the cards are checked, very less would have happened within the timeline of 30 days. There has been a time lag.” According to her, in Phase-1 of Aadhaar in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) has been able to generate only 88% cards out of the total enrolments. And about 99% of the generated cards were booked (handed over to post-offices). India Post has delivered 99.2% of those handed over to them.
Among major challenges postmen face is wrong pin codes on addresses. “A place like Basheerbagh is served by four post-offices. In slum areas, it is difficult to identify an address due to lack of proper house numbers etc,” she pointed out. “We are investigating each and every case. I assure you that the highest level of reviews happen in case of Aadhaar. Our inspectors make regular visits to post-offices and check on issues. We have even suspended some staff for delaying the delivery of Aadhaar cards,” said the postmaster general.
The deputy postmaster in Secunderabad H.P.O, Srinivasa Rao, also echoed the same views. “There is a huge amount of traffic involved in Aaadhar Card distribution. Over and above our normal postal duties, we got this responsibility. We handle sorting and dispatch of the cards and are faced with manpower and logistic issues, “ he said.
“For example, in one local post-office in Sitaphalmandi, in just two weeks, thousands of Aaadhar cards arrived for distribution by the postman there!” he revealed, adding, “We are taking steps to deal with this traffic. We have arranged for dispatch work on Sundays and holidays also and we are engaging additional help in the form of workers on a daily-wage basis to meet the demand.”
Asked about people experiencing delays of up to a year in receiving their cards, he replied, “I think a maximum delay of one or two months can be there in dispatch by us, not more than that.” He also said that some are coming to post-offices complaining that they Express News Service.