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.
383 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.
