India Post's Punjab Circle provides yeoman service during ongoing lockdown

An eight-year-old cancer patient from Una in Himachal Pradesh had almost run out of medicine stock last month, but a postman managed to deliver the critical drugs just in time.

This is one of many such important interventions that India Post has taken up to help people during the ongoing coronavirus-induced lockdown.

India Post's Punjab Circle made special arrangements to get the essential cancer drugs as they were from outside the state. With the ongoing coronavirus-induced lockdown restrictions, a postal motor van was hired to deliver the medicines that reached her home in Una where her mother received the consignment, said a senior official.

The girl's family had sought help from Union Minister for Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad, who ordered India Post to provide all possible logistical assistance to ensure that the medicines get delivered at the girl's house.

On these lines, the Department of Posts has arranged emergency delivery of medicines, medical aids, medical equipment, testing kits, etc, for doctors, patients and senior citizens, Punjab Circle Chief Postmaster General V K Tiwari said.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and medicines manufactured in Himachal Pradesh's Baddi, located near Chandigarh, is a pharmaceutical hub in the region while ayurvedic medicines from HP's Dharamshala along with homeopathic medicines in Ludhiana. All these different kinds of medications and kits are being sent to other parts of the country through the medium of the Postal department.

To serve the people, especially in the present situation, all intra-circle and inter-circle mail routes to Delhi, Haryana, HP and J&K Union Territory, have been made fully functional through the department mail vans and contractual mail vans.

In the Punjab Circle, beneficiaries of social security pensions are receiving pension at their doorstep during the lockdown thanks to efforts of India Post.

Employees of the Postal department also disburse Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments to beneficiaries of various government schemes.

DBTs, social security pensions...every day we carry out more than 10,000 transactions in Punjab to the tune of Rs 1.6 crore to Rs 2 crore, Tiwari said.

There are some beneficiaries who do not have accounts in post offices but postmen are handing over the cash to them with the help of technology available with the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). The payments are made by Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems through branch postmasters and any bank account of the beneficiary must be linked to Aadhaar.

With many elderly citizens living alone, the department has also directed its postmen on the field to lend a helping hand in delivery of grocery and other essential everyday items without charging them anything for the service.

We have alerted our postmen that if they come across any elderly person or elderly couple living alone and need help in procuring grocery items, then as a goodwill gesture they must lend a helping hand, said Tiwari.

Many in the department have volunteered and are also providing food to hawkers, rickshaw pullers, attendants of patients, besides migrant labourers stuck in various parts of Punjab and Chandigarh. For this, they also raise their contributions and get help from the Food and Civil Supplies department.

The chief postmaster general said, "We are running our network in Punjab to full capacity barring one or two per cent in sub post offices and branch post offices or areas falling in containment zones. The rest of the postal network is fully functional in the state.

Before opening the offices for public use, we sanitise our offices and mail vans everyday daily while also providing masks, gloves and hand sanitisers to our employees, Tiwari said referring to safety precautions taken by the Postal department in the wake of COVID-19.

The department has also provided an insurance cover worth Rs 10 lakh for its employees in view of the COVID-19 situation, which is over and above to other insurances they may be covered under, he said.

When asked what challenges they face during such crisis times, Tiwari replied, This is a tough time, COVID-19 itself is a challenge, but we are getting full support from the authorities, including government and the police.