Changing the way the postman knocks

The new Post Office Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha on the penultimate day of the monsoon session of Parliament, is to replace the Indian Post Office Act in the light of the changing role of post offices where its “network has become a vehicle for delivery of a variety of citizen centric services”. The new Bill authorises the central government which “may, by notification, empower any officer to cause any item in course of transmission by the Post Office to be intercepted, opened or detained in the interest of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, emergency, or public safety or upon the occurrence of any contravention of any of the provisions of this Act.”. Futuristic postal delivery The new Bill provides the central government “standards for addressing on the items, address identifiers and usage of post codes”. The most important aspect of the Bill is to drop the hitherto existing provision in clause 4 of the 1898 Act: “Central Government shall have the exclusive privilege of conveying by post, from one place to another, all letters … and shall also have the exclusive privilege of performing all the incidental services of receiving, collecting, sending, despatching and delivering all letters….” This provision lost its relevance ever since couriers were allowed to operate in India since the 1980s. As such, doing away with the provision of “exclusive privilege” by the central government in the new Post Office Bill is a step in the right direction and an acknowledgement of the reality.