Delivering hope: India Post is turning out to be the lifeline during lockdown
It would certainly not be an overstatement to call India Post a lifesaver amid these grim times when India is battling the coronavirus crisis. India Post has been delivering COVID-19 test kits, ventilators, masks, and medicines to far-flung places. The red-mail vans, which are usually used for delivery parcels within the city limits, have moved beyond. They have become a mode of transport to faraway locations during the nationwide lockdown, at a time when there are no trains and flights in operation. Last weekend, a COVID-19 kit consignment packed in dry ice arrived from Delhi for delivery to hospitals in Ranchi.
India Post has also earned praises from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who lauded their efforts in these testing times.
India Post boasts of the largest postal network in the world with more than 1.56 lakh post offices, of which 1.41 lakh are in rural areas. Over 1,000 elderly people of Kolkata and five districts of south Bengal received pension at their doorstep, thanks to the efforts of the India Post.
Payments to the tune of more than Rs 90 lakh have been made to these people of North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Birbhum. Apart from bringing pension, employees of the postal department have disbursed Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments to around 10,000 beneficiaries, including women and BPL family members, of various government schemes during the past two weeks.
The India Post has also entered into a tie-up with the Newtown Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) for delivering medicines to senior citizens and sick people at their doorsteps free of cost, an official said.
(With PTI inputs)
