Postal Manual Vol. VIII - India Post

advances, and to enable to postal official who is under orders of field service to start at once, the
Head of the Circle should, when issuing orders to the selected volunteer. Communicate his name
to the Postmaster of the head office under which he is serving. On receipt of this information the
latter will arrange for the immediate payment of the authorized advances, and see also that the
official ordered on field service is paid up to date of his making over charge of his appointment
and that a last- pay certificate is furnished to him.
34. Estimate of expenditure on field postal arrangements:- As soon as information is
received regarding the composition of the force for which a post office is required in the field an
approximate estimate of the probable expenditure on the under mentioned heads should be
submitted for the Director General’s information by the officer responsible for the arrangements.
(a) Preliminary charges on account of concentration and equipment i.e railway, freight,
traveling allowances, cost of tents and furniture etc.
(b) Monthly contingent charges (Including traveling allowance)
(c) Final charges for dispersing f postal establishments returning tents and articles of furniture
to store etc.
35. Report on field Postal arrangements (1) A report should be submitted by the Head
of the Circle to the Director General on any field Postal arrangements that may be under his
charge together with a sketch map showing the position of the field post offices established and
their distances from the base office.
(2) When the field operations are finished in one year the report should be made as soon as
after their close as possible. If however they extend over more than one year a separate report
should be made at the end of each financial year apart from the report at the close of operations,
so that the results can if necessary be incorporated in the Director-Generals annual administration
report submitted to Government.
36. Memo. of authorised balances and advances. – The Head of the Circle will supply
each Presidency Post Office with a memo. in the form Pa.-14 showing –
(a) the authorised minimum and maximum cash balances for the office, and
(b) the authorised maximum balance for stamps.
The minimum and maximum cash balances being fixed in accordance with the principles laid
down in rules 138 and 139. In fixing the maximum balance for stamps, it should be borne in mind
that a postmaster must keep a supply of ordinary stamps, for sale to the public, “sufficient for the
probable demands of one week”, and therefore the maximum should be equal to one week’s
demand plus the demand for the period between two supplies.
NOTE – The word ‘Stamps’ used in this rule includes Postage stamps, Postal Stationery and
non Postal stamps.
37. Countersignature of travelling allowance bills. – When in countersigning a travelling
allowance bill (TR-20 or TR-25) any retrenchment is made by the Head of the Circle, the reasons
should be explained to the officer concerned, and the bill should; after countersignature, be
returned to the officer by whom it was prepared. Travelling allowance bills must be disposed of as
early as possible, both in order to prevent inconvenience to the officer to whom the money is due
and to expedite the audit work in the Postal Account Office.
NOTE – The original order (or duly attested extract therefrom) sanctioning a journey outside
of an officer’s jurisdiction should be attached to the travelling allowance bill in which charge is
made for the journey.