New Delhi: Till very recently, post offices in India were functioning as per provisions of a British era Indian Post Office Act of 1898. Even though post office performs many functions other than mail delivery, the Act identified post office mainly as an instrument of mail delivery and money order payment. Present Government not only reposed its trust in the post office as an arm of the Government of India, but has also empowered it in many ways since 2014. Some of the major initiatives are detailed below.

First and foremost, the Act itself has been repealed and a new Post Office Act 2023 has been passed by the Parliament in December, 2023. The Act embodies the concept of Ease of Living and Ease of doing Business in the 16 sections. Through this enactment, post office has been converted from a mail delivery arm of the Government to service delivery. With technological tools, it’s possible today to deliver many services by the post office both at the post office counter as well as at the doorstep through ubiquitous Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevak.

Section 3 of the new Act empowers Central Government to decide on the services that can be rendered through post office in terms of the law in force at the time in respect of such service. The new Act has 16 sections as compared to 77 in the old Act. 1898 Act focused on postage stamp, postal article and money order whereas 2023 Act focuses on Service, Postage Stamp and Address. The repealed Act gave exclusive privilege postage stamp and transmission of letters to post office, the new Act has removed such privilege for transmission of letters, however it has retained exclusivity for postage stamps. There were 24 sections in the repealed Act detailing various penal provisions, whereas new Act has done away with all such provisions. Interception provisions have been retained to comply to other Laws for the time being in force.

Next big step that has been taken by the Government is technology induction in a big way since 2014.........

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