KERALA POST OFFICE: Life beyond Letters

IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...

Postal Orders are all the rage in rural India
Earlier the post office had limited roles to play in society. Usually, it was involved in sales of stamps, cards, inlands, transaction of money orders and running saving banks. But now all this has changed for good as the postal department is entering into all service activities. Opened in 1854 by Britain in India, the department is preparing itself for the changing times. During the P&T era, postal orders had been started for safe money transactions. The same time VPP was also started.

But from time to time the department has changed itself. Of late it has introduced the Postal Life Insurance that assures fewer premiums and more coverage. Parcel service was the continuation of post office's status as a retail outlet. Speed Post was launched to compete with private players who dominated the courier industry. In 1993'94, postal department embraced modernisation by adopting computerisation.

Then in 2001, the government controlled postal department entered into a joint venture with Western Union Money Transfer, an MNC which facilitated the easy money handling. Now, in the wake of Malhotra Committee recommendations, the department is working overtime to promote Rural Postal Life Insurance. E-post is another value addition. Scanned prints of any manuscript can be delivered to the addressee in a short period. Corporate electronic post is also available at affordable rates. Many government departments use them for routine mails of homogenous nature.

Bill mail service ' bulk dispatch of mobile phone bills ' is a great service for phone enthusiasts. In some states, even electricity and water bills are accepted in POs. In Kerala, BSNL phone bills are accepted. POs carry out address verifications for election commissions, mobile providers and municipalities. In Delhi, corporation taxes are also collected through POs. Media Post is a product under which post cards carry messages. POs exhibit sign boards as well. NREG payments are paid through them. In North East, even chartered flights are deployed for letter parcel transfer. This year, postal department in Kerala successfully distributed school textbooks after collecting from the production centre.

Sachar Commission Madrasa's pension was distributed by POs. It has become a rage as even scholarships are distributed through POs. Electronic MOs up to Rs 5,000 with 50 character messages are handled by POs. National pension scheme, foreign exchange dealing, MO abroad, sale of investment gold coins and passport processing are being carried out too. Now, a sophisticated monitoring system called Project Arrow is being implemented. India has 155,000 POs against US' 39,000 and China's 53,000.

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ORISSA WATER: Left in the Lurch

IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...

Contaminated drinking water maims many villagers
Two villages of Khurdha district ' Balsing and Singpur ' just 65 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, Orissa, are making news. Most of the villagers living in these regions suffer from a mysterious disease because of the presence of higher level of fluorine in the drinking water here.

Ganesh Baliarsingh, 18, doesn't look young. Any person can mistake him for a 37-year-old man. He suffers from a disease that has its toll on his age. There are many like him in these villages. Sukant, 24, the sole bread earner of his family, can't go to the nearest town Bolagarh or Khurdha for work as his body has become stiff. Fluorosis has crippled him. There are about some 50 people like him in these villages. The villagers tryst with this dreadful disease started in mid-eighties. Since then many of their youngsters have suffered. They face health problems like stiffness of body and deformity of bones from an early age. Doctors and authorities, who visited the area, said the presence of fluorine in drinking water has wreaked havoc.

All hell broke in 2002 when some five villagers died, four of them women. About 50 patients were admitted to a hospital due to fluorosis. The incident got overwhelming media coverage. Pressure was mounted on the local government to address the burning issue. But the state health directorate said people get sick because they drink contaminated water. Till now the government has done little to address the catastrophe. Now the situation is such that the locals have lost all hope. When this reporter visited these villages he was confronted by hostile villagers. 'Why are you here? We don't need any coverage. The media has defamed us. Now, no marriage proposals come for our children. Newspapers and television channels have reported our misery several times, but nothing good has happened. The government is yet to act,' say villagers.

But this is not the case. The government's attempt in 1992 to combat the crisis has failed to yield positive results. To solve the problem, the district administration dug three tube wells. Also, the administration constructed a pump house to supply safe drinking water to the villagers.

Besides, the villagers were advised not to use water from the wells. But the project to build a pump in the village never materialised. Prahalad Baliarsingh, ward member of the village, said: 'Now the government only supplies 30 litre of water per family in two days, which is insufficient. The dearth of water forces villagers to bank on tube wells for their day-to-day need like drinking and cooking food. Thus they expose themselves to the killer water.'

When the government realised that solving the problem would be cumbersome it asked the villagers to relocate. So far only two families have shifted. The rest are reluctant to move.

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CORRUPTION CALAMITY: Don't give them more

IIPM in sync with the best of the business world....

Rampant corruption is the single most challenge for poor nations
Stretching helping hands to the needy and disaster-hit is indeed a good deed. But at times, those deeds have to face lots of obstacles. While nature doesn't outweigh countries while it strikes, poor countries always fall prey to its rumbles. While several world communities and agencies show their generosity to the calamity-struck nations, managing disaster relief programmes in the underdeveloped nations is still embroiled with many hassles ' as corruption has become a key problem for them. In addition, poor governance, lack of transparency, callous and lethargic attitude of authorities concerned make relief and rehabilitation work less effective.

A UN investigation report released recently paints a grim picture about how overseas relief programmes are being siphoned off. The report revealed as many as 50 per cent of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Somalia have been stolen. Corruption cost the nation $485 million in 2009. However, Somalia is not the only crisis for the foreign aid agency. Even amidst the ongoing deluge in Pakistan, humanitarian groups expressed their sheer dissatisfaction over the ugliest corruption committed by Pakistani authorities. Pakistan received about $1.5 billion flood relief aid and $3 billion loan from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. But the donors are skeptic as well as curious about how the money will be spent?

A similar crisis was also witnessed while Haiti was struck by a devastated earthquake during January this year. While Haiti received $2.5 billion from the foreign aid agencies, a huge portion of the donation was amassed by government officials and aid workers. Moreover, the Indian Ocean tsunami aid generated a record amount of aid ' more than $11 billion. But the whopping amount, although not the whole, went into the wrong pockets. Africa receives the highest aid, but hasn't used it properly. Since 2001, the US has been donating nearly $1.4 billion a year to Africa for combating AIDS and for welfare works. By 2008, aid to Sub-Saharan Africa reached $50 per person. But rampant corruption has wasted a major portion of the aid. In Africa, cost of corruption is estimated about $150 billion per year. Realising the gravity of corruption, ex-Goldman Sachs economist Dambisa Moyo once asked the US 'to stop aiding Africa.' Apparently, the US is now rethinking its decision to donate $3.9 billion to Afghanistan.

But stopping aid during crisis is an unrealistic move as poor countries desperately need help. There are other ways by which these aid corruptions can be checked. Recipients should show greater accountability towards the donors. Stricter code of conduct and a transparent evaluation system, can certainly produce positive results. Although rampant corruption can't be wiped out totally, the relief-seekers should take some and swift actions against the perpetrators. The poor nations should now jointly take the cudgels to fight against corruptions in their countries.

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SECURITY INDIAN RAILWAY: Track of Reality and Fantasy

IIPM Proves Its Mettle Once Again...

A safe and secure train journey requires an all round effort!
With Indian Railways (IR) carrying over 10 billion passengers every year and operating around 16,000 trains every day, covering a four time distance between the earth and the moon every day, it's a case study in itself. A few months back, the IR announced a transformational initiative ' to envisage12 high-speed railway corridors where trains can operate at a speed of 250-350 km per hour. Now, juxtapose this with the number of train accidents that occurred recently. Since April 2009 till the end of July 2010, over 15 major railway accidents occurred. In such a scenario, the feasibility of having high-speed railway corridors (with respect to railway and passengers safety) seems quite ridiculous. While the IR is yet to accelerate the pace of its safety drive and safety in train operation is still a concern for the government, high-speed railway corridors is not a welcome move.

In recent years, Indian Railways has witnessed over 350 accidents a year. However in order to reduce railway accidents, the Centre had floated a Corporate Safety Plan in 2003. High-speed trains that exceeded 250 km per hour, were successfully launched as early as 1964 in Japan and adopted in France in 1981. For many years, infrastructure and capacity improvement projects were limited to building more domestic airports and roads. High-speed trains tend to emit only one-fourth and one-third of CO2 per 100-passenger-km that aircraft and private cars do respectively. Japan has shown that this is possible as well as necessary for the success of the system. However, European countries have demonstrated that it is essential to develop the intra-city transport network and integrate it with the system so that the ridership can increase and travel can be seamless. Improving the stations, instituting sensitive pricing, and putting in place an accessible ticketing system are equally important. High-speed trains can facilitate balanced regional urban development and this is of special relevance to Indian conditions. With careful planning, urban growth can be shifted to and induced in mid-size towns connected by these trains and further crowding of large metropolitan cities avoided.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently revealed that railway managements are under-utilising (at the tune of 50 per cent) their funds allocated for safety work. The report further highlighted delays in the railways' commitment over safety-related projects. Most of the upgrade and modernisation plans were behind their promised scheduled. The IR ' in spite of being India's large employer ' have over 8,500 posts vacant in the railway safety department. Talking about railway infrastructure, the scenario here too look quite bleak. Despite a decade-old report suggesting urgent refurbishment and replacement of 50,000 railways bridges and over 10,000 km of track, not much heed was ever paid in this regard. However, it's no exaggeration to say that the fastest train service in India will accelerate and resemble India's pace of growth, but the country should ponder over reducing accidents rates before conceiving other plans.

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