The Department of Posts, which forms a part of
the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is responsible for
the planning, development, expansion of operation and maintenance of Postal
Services in the country. It also discharges certain agency functions in
respect of Savings Bank and other Small Savings Schemes, collection of customs
duty on Postal articles and disbursement of pension to Military and Railway
pensioners, Family pension to Industrial Employees of Coal Mines etc.
The
Department administers Postal Life Insurance for the benefit of Postal, Telecom
and other Central Govt. Employees and Employees of State Governments, Public
Sector Undertakings, Nationalized Banks and Local bodies etc. Planning and
Policy-making at Headquarters. The Postal Services Board is the apex management
body of the Department, comprising the Chairman (who is also the Secretary,
Department of Posts and Director General) and six Members. The six
members of the Board hold functional portfolios of Operations, Personnel,
PLI, HRD, Technology and Planning. The Joint Secretary and
Financial Advisor to the Department is a permanent invitee to the Board.
The Secretary, Postal Services Board, assists the Board. Deputy
Directors General, Directors and Assistant Directors General provide necessary
support to the Board at the Headquarters.
Postal
Circles For providing postal services, the whole country has been divided
in to 22 Postal circles extending postal services to 30 States and 6 UTs.
Each circle is co-terminus with a State except (i) the North Eastern Circle,
which comprises six North Eastern States, (ii) Maharashtra circle which
includes Goa, (iii) West Bengal Circle includes Sikkim and the Union Territory
of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, (iv) Kerala circle includes the Union Territory
of Lakshadweep and Mahe District of Puducherry (UT), (v) Punjab Circle includes
the Union Territory of Chandigarh, (vi) Gujarat circle includes Daman, Diu,
Dadra and Nagar Haveli (UT), (vii) Andhra Pradesh Circle includes
Telangana State and (viii) Tamil Nadu Circle includes Union Territory of
Puducherry ( Except Mahe District).
The
Chief Postmaster General heads each Circle. Each Circle is divided into
Regions comprising groups of field units, called Divisions (Postal / RMS
Divisions). Each Region is headed by a Postmaster General. In the
Circles , DAP and Regions, there are other functional supporting logistics
units like Circle Stamp Depots, Postal Store Depots and Mail Motor
Service.
Army
Postal Services Over and above these 22 Circles, the communication needs of the
armed forces are catered to by the Base Circle. Base Circle is headed by
the Additional Director General, Army Postal Service. The officer cadre
of Army Postal Services is drawn on deputation from the Indian Postal Service.
75 % of the other ranks of the Army Postal Service are drawn from the
Department of Posts and the remaining personnel are recruited by the
Army.
Operational
Units:-There are 21 GPOs presently functioning in the country. They are:
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh Circle), Guwahati (Assam Circle), Patna(Bihar),
Delhi (Delhi), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Ambala (Haryana), Shimla (Himachal
Pradesh),Sri Nagar (Jammu& Kashmir), Ranchi (Jharkhand),Bangalore
(Karnataka),Thiruvanantapuram (Kerala), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh),Mumbai
(Maharashtra),Shillong(North East),Bhubaneswar Orissa), Chandigarh(Punjab),
Jaipur (Rajasthan),Chennai(Tamil Nadu), Dehradun (Uttrakhand), Lucknow Uttar
Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal Circle).
Kausik chennai: Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National
Postal Academy (RAKNPA), Ghaziabad is the Apex Training Institution and caters
to the training needs of the managerial cadres of India Post. It conducts
induction training of Indian Postal Service officers and mid-carrier training
programmes for Indian Postal Service officers. It also conducts Induction
Training for Gr.`B‟ officers besides some specialized need
based training's on technology, Marketing and other fields of
importance.
There
are six Postal Training Centers at Darbhanga, Guwahati, Madurai, Mysore,
Saharanpur and Vadodra. These Training Centres cater to the training needs of
Inspectorial cadre (Inspector Posts/Assistant Superintendents of Posts) and all
Gr. `C‟ employees (Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants. They also conduct
induction training for the Inspector Posts and for Postal Assistants/Sorting
Assistants.
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Workplace Training Centres (WTCs) in circles are operational. These WTCs
cater to the training needs of various categories of staff near their work
place.
There are also
5 Zonal Training Centres (ZTCs) which cater to training needs of the Postal
Accounts Personnel. Engineering wing comprising of Architectural, Civil and
Electrical Engineering disciplines is entrusted with design and construction of
all Major & Minor building projects
and maintenance of buildings in the Department.
