the goan I network
MARGAO
The ongoing Vigilance week brought to the fore glaring discrepancies in the functioning of the Head Post Office, Margao, even as citizens and activists renewed the demand for excluding Goa State from the Maharashtra Postal Circle for better services and job opportunities.
Otherwise, consider this. When activists visited the Margao post office on Wednesday, they were told that the sanctioned strength of the postal assistants is around 33. In reality, however, they found out that only seven postal assistants are working at the post office.
Similarly, while the Margao post office has the sanctioned strength of 17 full-time postmen, only two postmen are working on full-time basis, while another 15 personnel are putting the same amount of work on daily basis. And, he added that though the post office is equipped with computers, there are not enough hands to man them, leaving them unutilised.
That’s not all. The postal authorities have not paid heed to the dire need to install drop boxes at the high rise buildings and housing societies as a result of which postmen are left with no option than to climb each and every floor to deliver the mail.
Taking opportunity of the ongoing Vigilance week celebrations, social activist Roland Martins submitted his grievances in the complaint box in writing, with a plea to the postal authorities to pay attention to the Margao head post on priority. “We have been closely following the functioning of the Margao post office for the simple reason that unending and serpentine queues are literally the order of the day at the post office. Be it senior citizens, women and the general public, they are made to stand for hours to get their work done at the Margao post office.”
He blamed the present crisis to the outgoing Senior Superintendent of Posts, saying the lady officer had never bothered to walk the talk leave alone inspect the Margao post office for unknown reasons.
With a new Senior Superintendent of Posts assuming office at Mapusa, Martins has only hoped that there will now be a turn around in the postal services in the State.
He took the opportunity to make a fervent plea to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, the three MPs, including Union Minister Shripad Naik to take up with the Centre to form an independent Goa postal circle for better services as well as creation of jobs for the unemployed
Goan youth.
Post office in Collectorate named
‘Gandhi market complex’
MARGAO: Hazard a guess what’s the abbreviation of GMC, the name given to the post office set up at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex, which is housing the district Passport Kendra?
When activist Roland Martins posed the question to the official manning the post office in the Collectorate, it was shockingly disclosed that the term GMC stands for Gandhi market complex.
Martins explained that since the Postal department has shut down the Gandhi market post office, they must have shifted the same to the district Collectorate to facilitate setting up of the Passport Kendra. “It’s a shame that the post office in the Collectorate is named after Gandhi market complex. The government should inquire and change the name to Mahatma Gandhi post office in honour of the Father of the Nation,” he said.
