The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications.
· The Postal Service Board, the apex management body of the Department, comprises the Chairman and six Members.
· Chairman is Secretary Posts.The six members of the Board hold portfolios of Personnel, Operations, Technology, Postal Life Insurance,Banking& DBT and Planning respectively. The Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor to the Department is a permanent invitee to the Board.
· The Board is assisted by a senior staff officer of the Directorate as Secretary to the Board. Deputy Directors General, Directors and Assistant Directors General provide the necessary functional support for the Board at the Headquarters.
· Governance System
For providing postal services, the whole country has been divided into 23 postal circles.
Each Circle is co-terminus with a State except for
Gujarat Circle (which also administers the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli),
Kerala Circle (which includes the Union Territory of Lakshadweep)
, Maharashtra Circle (which has within its jurisdiction the State of Goa),
North East Circle (which comprises six North Eastern States - Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Tripura),
Punjab Circle (which has within its administrative jurisdiction, the Union Territory of Chandigarh),
Tamil Nadu Circle (which also administers the Union Territory of Pondicherry) and
West Bengal Circle (which also administers the state of Sikkim and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands) .
Each of these Circles is headed by a Chief Postmaster General.
Each Circle is further divided into Regions comprising field units, called Divisions (Postal / RMS Divisions).
Each Region is headed by a Postmaster General.
In the Circles and Regions there are other functional units like Circle Stamp Depots, Postal Stores Depots and Mail Motor Service etc.
Besides these 23 Circles, there is another Circle, called Base Circle, to cater to the postal communication needs of the Armed Forces.
The Base Circle is headed by an Additional Director General, Army Postal Service in the rank of a Major General.
The officer cadre of the Army Postal Service comprises officers on deputation from the Civil Posts. Seventy five percent of the other ranks of the Army Postal Service are also drawn from the Department of Posts and the remaining personnel are recruited by the Army.
· Postal Services Board
· Shri. Pradipta Kumar Bisoi, Secretary, Department of Posts & Chairperson, Postal Services Board
· ShriVineetPandey, Director General (Posts)
· Dr. Charles Lobo, Member (Operations)
· Ms. Smita Kumar, Member (Technology)
· Shri Ashok Kumar Poddar, Additional Director General (Coordination)
· Dr. Santosh Kumar Kamila , Member (Personnel)
· Ms.Sandhya Rani, Member (Banking & DBT)
· ShriSukhdev Raj, Member (Planning & HRD)
· ShriAlok Sharma ,Member (PLI) & Chairman, PLI Investment Board
SOME IMPORTANT FACTS
1727 when the first Post Office was set up in Kolkata.
Subsequently, General Post Offices (GPOs) were also set up in the then three Presidencies of Kolkata (1774), Chennai (1786) and Mumbai (1793).
To bring some uniformity amongst the then Post Offices, the Indian Post Offices Act of 1837 was enacted. This Act was followed by the more comprehensive Indian Post Offices Act of 1854, which is the primary base of the present postal system in India.
In 1854, Railway Mail Service was introduced as also the Sea Mail Service from India to Great Britain and China.
Thereafter, the India Post OfficesAct of 1898 was passed which regulates postal services in the country.
In 1852, the first ever adhesive postage stamps in Asia were issued in Sindh (Scinde); these stamps th subsequently became famous as the ScindeDawks.
On 18 February, 1911, the world's first airmail right – from Allahabad to Naini - took place. It traversed a distance of 18 kilometers (approx.) across the river Ganga.
The first postage stamp valid across the country was issued on 1st October, 1854 which provided an affordable and uniform rate of postage based on weight.
