Rural post offices in Kendrapara become monuments of neglect

KENDRAPARA: A dilapidated thatched hut surrounded by wild vegetation, a broken table and two wooden benches. This is what meets the eyes when one visits the post office at Gagua village in Kendrapara block. Unlike the one at the district headquarters which is air-conditioned and fully furnished, the dilapidated post office at Gagua presents a sorry picture. And similar is the condition of many post offices in rural areas of Kendrapara.

The post office doesn’t have a locker to keep money and other important documents. The mud walls are crumbling and rainwater often leaks through the thatched roof. With the district witnessing incessant rain for the last few days, the hut is on the verge of collapse.

Gagua Postmaster Harishchandra Samal said, “The Postal department pays only Rs 500 for house rent. With the meagre amount, it is impossible to rent a pucca house. The post office has been functioning in this thatched hut for the last more than four decades.”

The post office has accounts of around 1,200 villagers. Samal said due to lack of space in the office, he keeps all the money and documents in his house.

Adhir Rout, a villager, said besides Gagua, the rural post office in Bijayanagar has not been white washed for the last 20 years. The thatched mud-walled house may soon collapse due to lack of maintenance. Around 500 villagers have their accounts in the post office.

Post offices in Kochila, Malianch, Gamu, Sasinapada and other villages are also functioning in small thatched houses.

Vice-president of Kendrapara Citizens’ Forum Biswanath Behera said the Postal department has already launched a banking system but the rural post offices don’t have proper infrastructure for it. People in rural areas are facing a lot of difficulties in availing the services, he added.

Superintendent of Postal department, Cuttack (North Division) Dilip Kumar Samal said almost all the 243 rural post offices in Kendrapara have no permanent houses. In many villages, postmasters run the extra departmental branch post offices (EDPOs) in their own house. In some places, postmasters operate from the premises of gram panchayat offices, Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras and schools.

“We have decided to shift all the post offices functioning from thatched houses to pucca buildings within this year,” he added.