4,000 passports delivered in Kashmir post Aug 5: Prasad

New Delhi: As many as 4,000 passports were delivered in the Kashmir Valley post August 5, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Rajya Sabha on Thursday and appreciated India Post for its good services in Jammu and Kashmir despite difficult circumstances.

"I want to place on record my appreciation of the Postal Department people who, in spite of difficult circumstances, delivered the goods. They also delivered nearly 4,000 passports in the Valley issued since August 5," he said during Question Hour.

Replying to a supplementary, he said there are 1,694 post offices in Jammu and Kashmir including 698 in Kashmir and added that 2,948 articles were booked and 7,052 were delivered in August.

Prasad said a total of "16,082 banking transactions with a value of Rs 22.98 crore were done in August and subsequently Rs 94 crore and then Rs 121 crore worth of transactions were done."

He said there was no suspension of postal services in Kashmir post August 5.

Vandana Chavan (NCP) during a supplementary asked whether the minister's reply was correct or India Post's.

She cited a reply by India Post Office to a tweet by Hyderabad-based activist Srinivas Kodali on August 11 on whether postal services are available in Kashmir, in which it said: "No. Until further orders."

To this, the minister said he would look into the matter.

During Question Hour, he said, "Postal services remained unhindered. In August, a good amount of postal services were delivered. There was no dislocation per se."

However, to regulate the inward mail traffic and electronic money orders, the Department of Posts temporarily suspended booking and transmission of speed post, registration post and parcels from August 5 to August 18 and booking of electronic money orders to Kashmir from August 13 to 27 on account of operations reasons, he said.