A year is all that you have to wait for the postal department to launch a service where you get a receipt as a proof of safe delivery of “accountable articles” to the addressee of your choice.
The receipt or acknowledgement will come to a customer with the photograph and signature of the person who receives the article. The service is likely to be launched by the end of 2013.
Disclosing this at an interaction with customers here on Thursday, K. Chandrashekar, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangalore Region, said the “accountable articles” covered speed post, registered post and registered parcels.
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He said that postal staff would carry a hand-held device with them to take the photograph of the addressee.
Dr. Chandrashekar said that India Post was now working on the service (as a pilot project) and was likely to launch it by the end of 2013. India Post had launched mechanised sorting out (automatic mail processing) of postal letters in Delhi. It was being implemented in Kolkata now. It would be launched in Bangalore and Chennai next. Once it was implemented in a postal centre, it was mandatory to write the PIN (personal identification number) code on the letters.
A registered post or a parcel should be delivered only to the addressee. If not, it would be an “irregularity”, he said.
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Dr. Chandrashekar said that the department aimed at computerising post offices in villages by the end of 2013.
He said speed post and registered post services at post offices in Ashoknagar, Hampankatta, Balmatta, and Surathkal and head post office at Pandeshwar had been extended up to 7 p.m. Railway mail service at the Central Railway Station worked for 24 hours all days.