POST OFFICE – KNOW OUR DEPARTMENT
World Postal Day happens each year on October 9, commemorating the date for the establishment
of Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in Bern,
Switzerland. The UPU was the start of global communication revolution,
allowing people could write to others all over the world. October 9th
was first declared World Postal Day at the 1969 UPU Congress in Tokyo,
Japan. Since then, World Post Day has been celebrated all over the world
to highlight the importance of the postal services.
The Postal Services is under the Department of Posts, which is part of
the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Govt of
India. The apex body of the department is the Postal Service Board,
consisting of a chair and six members. The six board members govern
personnel, operations, technology, Postal Life Insurance, Human Resource
Development (HRD) and planning. The joint secretary and financial
adviser is also a permanent invitee.
India has been divided into 22 postal circles, each circle headed by a
chief Postmaster General. Each circle is divided into regions, headed by
a Postmaster General and comprising field units known as divisions
(headed by SSPOs and SPOs). These divisions are further divided into sub
divisions, headed by ASPs and IPOs. Other functional units (such as
circle stamp depots, postal store depots and mail motor service) may
exist in the circles and regions. In addition to the 22 circles, there
is a base circle to provide postal services to the Armed Forces of
India. The base circle is headed by a Director General, Army Postal
Service (with a rank of Major General).
The highest Post Office in the world is Hikkim, Himachal Pradesh, India at a height of 15,500 ft (4700m) (postal code-172114).
The first adhesive postage stamp in Asia were issued in the Indian
district of Scinde in July 1852 by Bartle Frere chief Commissioner of
the region. Frere was an admirer of Rowland Hill, the English postal
reformer who had introduced the Penny Post. The Scinde stamps became
known as “Scinde Dawks”, ‘Dawk’ is the Anglicized spelling of the
Hindustani word Dak or (‘post’). These stamps with a value of ½ anna,
were in use until june 1866. The first all India stamps were issued on
01 October 1854.
By - Warrant Officer
Rakesh Swarnkar
Army Postal Service Corps