India 2018

102 India 2018
Organization Overview
The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications. The
Postal Service Board, the apex management body of the Department, comprises
the chairman and six members. The six members of the Board hold portfolios
of personnel, operations, technology, postal life insurance, banking and HRD
and planning. The Chairman of Postal Services Board is also the Secretary of
the Department of Posts.
Postal Network
At the time of independence, there were 23,344 post offices throughout the
country; of these 19,184 were in the rural areas and 4,160 in the urban. Today
India has the largest postal network in the world with 1,54,965 post offices, of
which 1,39,067 (89.74 per cent) are in rural areas and 15,898 (10.26 per cent) are
in urban. Thus, the network has registered nearly seven-fold growth since
independence, the focus of this expansion having been the rural areas.
Expansion of the postal network especially in rural areas, has to a great
extent been brought about by opening part time Gramin Dak Sewak Post Offices,
a system unique to the Department of Posts. Under this system, postal personnel,
called Gramin Dak Sewak are employed, subject to fulfillment of certain criteria,
to run the post office for a period not exceeding five hours, and to deliver and
convey mails on payment of a certain allowance. Such post offices offer mail,
retail, savings bank, life insurance and remittance services in addition to
disbursement of wages and pensions under certain social security programmes
such as MGNREGS. On an average, a post office in the country serves an area
of 21.56 sq.km. and a population of 7,753 people. Post offices are opened subject
to fulfillment of norms regarding population, income and distance stipulated
by the Department. There is an element of subsidy for opening of post offices in
rural areas, which is to the extent of 85 per cent of the cost in hilly, tribal, desert
and inaccessible areas, and 66.67 per cent of the cost in normal rural areas.
The postal network consists of three categories of post offices, viz; Head
Post Offices, Sub-Post Offices and Extra Departmental Branch Post Offices. All
categories of post offices provide similar postal services, while delivery function
is restricted to specified offices. In addition to post offices, basic postal facilities
are also offered through franchisee outlets and Panchayat Sanchar Seva Kendras.
Franchisee outlets are opened in urban and rural areas where it is not possible
to open a regular post office. These Kendras are opened at Gram Panchayat
Headquarters. This scheme is implemented by Gram Panchayats through an
agent appointed by them. As on March 31, 2017 there were 2,345 franchisee
outlets and 2049 Panchayat Sanchar Seva Kendras functioning in the country.
Financial Services
Department of Posts is operating Small Savings Schemes on behalf of Ministry
of Finance, which frames and modifies rules relating to these schemes and pays