Visit of students from People's High School Panaji to Philately Bureau Panaji for the exhibition displayed on Mahatma Gandhi.
Celebrating World Post Day on October 9, with various events, stamp exhibitions, competitions, workshops etc, the nations across the globe highlight the importance of postal services. October 9 was first declared World Post Day at the 1969 Universal Postal Union Congress in Tokyo, Japan. The proposal was submitted by Anand Mohan Narula, a member of the Indian delegation. Since then, World Post Day has been celebrated all over the world to highlight the importance of the postal services. The State of Goa is not an exception and the Department of Post has been constantly upgrading itself to offer smooth, easy, hassle free and speedy services.
While speaking to The Goan, The Senior Superintendent of Post Offices Goa Division, S V L N Rao shared that in the past six months 35,000 new postal savings bank accounts have been opened in Goa. “It is, in fact, a small number, as compared to the population of Goa, and the department is trying to reach out to the public through workshops, interactions and visits to various parts of the State,” said Rao.
Rao also mentioned about the recently introduced schemes like Mahila Samman Yojana, Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana which are for women above 18 years, and girl child below 10, respectively. “In Mahila Samman Yojana a fixed amount has to be deposited once and in Sukanya Samruddhi Yojana which is exclusively for the girl child, there is flexibility of depositing any amount even daily or monthly. It also has the highest rate of interest just like our Senior Citizen’s Savings Scheme which pays the highest interest of 8.2 % every quarterly,” informed Rao.
The post has come out with many other public friendly schemes, and services. One of them is the change of the old mobile number on the Aadhar card through the phone. Also, to have new Adhar card enrolment for any child below five years of age is conducted through post office, through mobile. There is also Passport Seva Kendra opened at South Goa Collectorate through Foreign Post Office.
The post is also constructing an office to offer customs services to Goans at Alto Porvorim. To reduce the transit for customs work that is being held in Mumbai, and make the process speedy, we are planning to open a Customs Office in our premises at Alto Porvorim soon. “This will help the customers to do the basic formalities and paper work in Goa which are currently done in Mumbai. The other process would be in Mumbai, but the initial documentation can be done in Goa,” said Rao.
“We are encouraging people to book, register their parcels from their homes, through our newly started Dak Niryat Kendra (DNK), and currently we have 18 regular customers in Goa who are sending their parcels abroad, through our services. This service is to promote usage of postal services in customers, who can avail personalised services in lesser charges. The parcel sizes can be customised, and there will be no fixed size,” informed Rao.
Sharing on the week-long celebratory programme schedule, A D Sarangale, Assistant Superintendent of Post at Panaji said, “A five-day programme is being chalked out from October7-11, beginning with Mails and Parcel Day, wherein we had interactions with customers, and accepted their suggestions. We also celebrated Philately Day on October 8, conducting workshops for students, allowing them to visit Philately Bureau and also had a letter writing contest, ‘Dhai Akhar’. On World Post Day, October 9, we will organise a ‘Post-thon’ for postal staff and have a small walk in Panaji on ‘Fit Post, Fit India’ theme. There will be display of our services for the public and Adhar camps at few places across Goa, and also tree planting under ‘Ek Ped, Maa Ke Naam’. On October 10, we will celebrate ‘Antyodaya Divas’ which is dedicated to the general public. On October 11 we will have a Postal Life Insurance Drive for financial empowerment of the public. Apart from this Dak Chaupal Shibirs will be held in remote areas.”
“The Department of Posts, Goa Postal Division has been doing wonderful innovations and making new products such as QR code and AR. The Philatelic Bureau people have been very cooperative and helpful. They supported us with the materials during our GPNS meetings. Dr Charles Lobo, the then PostMaster General mentored us, young philatelists” shared M R Ramesh Kumar, president of Goa Philately and Numismatic Society (GPNS) who is associated with the Goa Postal Division for the past 40 plus years. “The good old snail mail has undergone a total revolution with most of the new generation opting for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram etc. But the personal touch is really missing which has lots of emotions attached with it. I would say that social media is inanimate,” opined Ramesh Kumar.
