Postal Manual Vol. VIII - India Post

corrected immediately before the issue of sorting orders by him or as soon as such orders are
received from the Superintendent RMS, or by the Head of the Circle.
118-A. Due bag statements of post offices.— (1) The Superintendent should prepare for
the guidance of each of his post offices that have to receive and despatch surplus due bags, the
total number of which exceeds 10 days, a due bags statement (Ms.-73) showing the number of
bags of each description due to be received or dispatched by the office (a) “without mail” or 9b) as
“surplus”.
(2) Whenever any alteration is prescribed in a due mail list (.-9), the Superintendent
should inform the postmaster or the sub-postmaster, as the case may be, of the nature of the
corrections to be made in the due bag statements affected.
119. Clearance of letter-boxes at railway stations.—Letter boxes at railway stations,
where there are no mail offices, will be cleared by mail peons or other officials. The
Superintendent of post offices must decide in each case in consultation with the Superintendent,
RMS, concerned whether the contents of the letterbox so cleared are to be brought to the post
office or handed to the RMS for disposal. In every case in which the contents are to be made over
to the RMS, the instructions contained in rule 60 of the Posts and Telegraphs Manual, Volume V,
should be followed.
120. Method of securing office safe.—For each head or sub-office under his control and
for each record office the Divisional Superintendent must prescribe the room of the office and the
position and manner in which the office safe or safes are to be secured. Each Head Office should
be provided at the discretion of the Head of the Circle with a chowkidar, whole or part time for
guarding it at night. In the case of sub-offices the office safe will be kept at the nearest police
station, Treasury or Sub-Treasury provided one is situated at a distance of not more than a mile
from the post office and the road is normally safe and can be done without incurring extra expense.
The office safe must, whether it is kept in the post office or at Treasury, Sub-Treasury or Police
Station, be secured either by embedding it into a cemented plinth in a pucca building or in
accordance with the following instructions. If the safe opens from the top, it will be secured by
fastening iron chains to the handles and securing the other ends of the chains round a log of wood
(well tarred) or a heavy stone, which should be sunk in the ground some distance below the safe.
The safe itself be sunk as deeply as possible consistently with its being opened. If the safe opens
from the front, it should be similarly sunk in the wall and fastened to a post sunk deeper still
behind it. In the case of such sub offices where it is not possible to get a safe embedded in the
nearest Treasury, Sub-Treasury or Police Station and where cash is retained overnight in the office
itself. Heads of the Circles may provide a Chowkidar, whole or part time, where they deem it
necessary to make such arrangements.
121. Security of service messages.—(1) The Superintendent must be careful to see that
no telegrams are needlessly despatched on service from his own office or by the Inspectors under
his control, and he should attend strictly to the instructions contained in rules 668 to 675 of the
Posts and Telegraphs Manual, Volume II.
(2) A Superintendent of post offices should, when inspecting a combined office, call
for and examine the drafts of all service telegrams despatched during any one month, which are on
record in the office at the time. He should take note of all irregularities, such as the unnecessary
despatch of telegrams, neglect to word telegrams as concisely as possible and to use the
Telegraphic Message Code wherever practicable, the despatch on service of messages relating to
the private affairs of the senders, etc. He should impose suitable penalties on the officials in fault
whom he has no authority to punish, in the case of messages sent by officials whom he has no
authority to punish, he should send to the Head of the Circles the original drafts of the messages he