Postal service

Sir, - During the last few months I had sent more than a score of letters under Registered Post with acknowledgment cards to several addressees spending more than twentyfive rupees on each occasion. However, save for rare exception, I had not received the Postal Registration acknowledgment cards though the Postal Department levies an extra three rupees for the acknowledgement card.

After some waiting I am obliged to complain about the non-receipt of the acknowledgement card to the Customer Care Centre, Greames Road Post Office, Chennai, which informs me in due course that the letter had been delivered to the addressee on some date without, however, making available the signature of the addressee confirming the receipt of the communication. Now I find that the addressee subsequently maintains that the communication in question has not reached him at all. In other words, it appears that the Customer Care Centre is making a false statement so as to hoodwink the complainant.

These days the business community - for that matter even government offices during the recent postal strike - has begun to ignore the Postal Department and rely upon the private courier system, thereby leaving less fortunate populace at the mercy of the utterly callous postal staff. It is time that the Government of India acknowledged its incompetence to provide efficient postal service and handed over the organisation to private parties and until this is done, the Chennai Customer Care Centre should at least make available to the complainant a certified photostat copy of delivery sheet maintained at the delivery post office containing the signature of the addressee instead of the obviously useless/meaningless certificate of delivery.

S.V. Srinivasan,

Chennai

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