Kolkata: The West Bengal Circle of the postal department has stopped booking of any parcel from Monday. The move comes in the wake of restrictions imposed by the state government in consultation with the Centre to arrest the spread of CoVID-19.
"We are not booking any parcel from March 23. The booking or delivery of any mail has also been stopped. Being an essential service we have not stopped our entire operation but have scaled-down our activities, The working hours have been reduced from 10 am to 3 pm," said Amitabh Singh, Post Master General (Kolkata).
According to sources in the department, only two or three post offices in each district or town has been kept open and minimum staff are working to ensure that people can withdraw money without any hassle. In Kolkata out of the 104 post offices, only 25 are functional.
Many people particularly the elderly still prefer to save their money through post offices and the department has taken measures to ensure that they are not denied service.
"We have made a list of our staffs who stay in close vicinity from their respective offices and have asked them to attend. Their duty roster is being made on a rotational basis. All the women staff have been asked to work from home," a senior official in the postal department said.
The department has also taken measures to ensure that their staffs particularly those who are on duty have protective gear like masks, sanitisers.
The West Bengal circle of the Department of Posts saw a boom in the parcel business in 2019. the number of parcels has doubled in 2019 and the revenue had increased by 35 percent in comparison to 2018.