``This is the first post office which is on its way to being a paper-less office. The entire office, each and every section is computerised and online,'' Kalpana Rajsinghot, systems administrator at the Parliament Street post office says.

The staff are gradually getting used to the sophisticated machines. Some like Surinder Singh, a few years away from his retirement, have become experts in handling the computers. Others still take time, looking for numerical and alphabets on the keyboard, apparently oblivious to the impatient ones in the queue.

At one of the many counters, where the queue was slightly long, the harassed operator was trying to explain to the customers that he was still a green horn. ``It was better off without computers. At least he could write faster,'' a customer complained.

But an official at the facilitation counter tried to explain that the teething trouble would soon be over.``It is not that all the computers came only today. The process began as early as 1991, so most of them know it,'' the official explained. The cost of total computerisation in a period of four years has been at a cost of Rs 1.21 crore.``The advantage with this is that there is absolutely no duplication of work. There is no time wastage in copying or rechecking and all information is online,''says Rajsinghot.

The areas computerised at the post office include counters which handle booking of registered articles, speed post, insurance, money orders and postal insurance. Various saving schemes, accounting procedures, cash and stamp transactions, dispatch mail lists and bag lists have been computerised.

Though the total computerisation was by and large welcomed by most people who said that gradually when the entire staff learnt the operations, time taken at every counter would be reduced, the various savings scheme agents appeared to be an unhappy lot. ``Not only because our time has been curtailed severely but also because the single window system in national saving scheme etc. is non-operational,'' said an agent. ``We first have to stand at one counter where they fill forms and then stand at the cash counter,'' he complained.

They also lament that though computerisation has been done, the authorities have not installed a simple machine that would count money. ``Every multinational bank has it. Now the tellers count once, twice and often thrice, and queues get longer and longer'' his colleague complained.