Preference to postal services in suburbs

While inaugurating an upgraded sub-post office in Medavakkam near Tambaram on Thursday, senior officials of the Postal Department said preference would be given to improving facilities in the suburban areas of Chennai.

Taking part in a function at Medavakkam where the branch post office was upgraded as a sub-post office, Radhika Doraiswamy, Chief Postmaster General, Tamil Nadu Circle, said the Department had plans to upgrade many post offices in the suburbs apart from constructing new buildings in those places where they functioned from rented premises.

She said that as part of extending and improving services at the post offices in Tamil Nadu, it was planned to sell stamp papers for registration purposes in association with the State Government. Ms. Radhika said the department was popular among the rural folk for extending financial assistance to self-help groups. The scheme was in place in districts such as Sivaganga and Pudukottai and would soon be introduced in Kancheepuram.

Plans were on to install computers in all post offices and to provide inter-connectivity among all of them, she said.

T. Panneerselvam, Postmaster General, Chennai City Region, said a survey was conducted among customers recently about their expectations and based on this, the department had decided to give preference to improving facilities in the suburban areas of Chennai.

Upgrading branch offices as sub-post offices and improving basic infrastructure to provide better services to residents here were all part of their efforts to reach out to the people, Mr. Panneerselvam said. Since many adjoining places of Chennai were still rural in character, they would be focussing on Postal Life Insurance, for which the Chennai region had set a target of Rs. 400 crores this year, he added.

A. Govindarajan, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, Tambaram Division, and B. Ravi, Medavakkam panchayat president were also present.