Makeover: That’s the new address for dusty post office

Making it clear, that this isn’t just a part of another election manifesto, given the looming general elections, Scindia said that he wanted to finish his groundwork before making any announcement. Now with plans on track, the project to modernise the first 50 post offices would be launched on August 17, he said. The remaining 450 post offices would be modernised by the year-end.

Apart from the changes in look and feel, improving the core efficiency such as ensuring timely delivery of money orders, removing problems in cash availability and providing instant, electronic and international money order services is going to be thrust of this revamp drive. To begin with, the postal department will sport a new slogan. The main aim of the revamp drive is to fix core responsibilities of the department. “We want to bring in efficiency and professionalism and ensure both employee as well as customer satisfaction,” Scindia said.

The entire project has been structured to ensure that changes are felt at the grassroots level, Scindia said. “There are over a lakh gram dak sewaks in this country and until a transformation is brought about at their level, no initiative can be successful,” Scindia noted, adding that empowering a gram dak sewak was pivotal to the employee reforms he sought to make.

The department along with NIC and BSNL is working to establish an electronic payment system for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, under which the workers would be allotted smart cards.

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