Chaos prevails in understaffed post office
From Our Correspondent

PANCHKULA, Sept 8 — The Post Office in the Sector 4 main market has over 2,000 accounts at its disposal. It also caters to the day-to-day needs of hundreds of customers of the area. But the post office is under-staffed.

In the absence of an exclusive stamp vendor, routine functions are marked by delay and chaos. Sources reveal that the office sells stamps worth over Rs 3,000 daily and it is necessary to provide an exclusive stamp vendor for a post office having a sale of at least Rs 2,000 a day. There are no postal assistants, which only compounds the problem. The services of employees from other post offices are often required to cope with the workload of this office.

Many local residents are sore over the curt attitude shown by the staff at the counters. Mr S.L. Verma, a retired government employee, says, "It is humiliating to face their snobbish attitude. We have approached the authorities concerned several times in this regard, but to no avail."

The post office does not have any separate counters for payment of telephone bills, money orders, speed posts, stamps etc. for the convenience of the public. There is only one counter for all these services. The single queue of people stretches out of the premises of the office during peak hours of the day. People have to wait for long in the scorching heat to get their job done.

There is neither any separate line for the ladies nor for senior citizens who find it miserable to stand for so long. The area where the customers assemble in the post office is not more than 50 square feet, making it chaotic. Panic and quarrels among people and the staff is a common site .