How are H.O, S.O,B.O different in terms of types of works in Indian Post department

Dated:14-Sep-2019 New Delhi India 13:38 Hrs IST(GMT+0530 hrs)

A Head Post Office [H.O] is the controlling authority of All Sub Post Offices [S.O] in it's Area. A H.O may have upto 50 S.O’s of different PIN Codes under it. Each Post Master of S.O is controlled and answerable to H.O Post Master or Director.

A B.O(Branch Post Office) is under the same PIN Code of S.O of that Area and all Daily Mail, Speed Post, Registered Post, M.O are collected from B.O and sent to S.O Delivery of that Area. So a B.O Post Master is controlled and answerable to Post Master of S.O Delivery.

Generally A S.O can also be termed as Main Sorting/Delivery Office of that Area Pin Code, from where all incoming mail and outgoing mail are received and sent. All postmen delivering ordinary, Registered, Speed Post, Parcel Mail, serving a Particular Area PIN Code Report for Duty @ S.O Delivery plus keep their Bicycles, Motorcycles in it.

All B.O have short working hours as compared to S.O of that Area as they have to send everything to S.O by close of Business Hours after which one Mail Collection Van will carry everything from S.O Delivery to H.O for reconciliations.

Delivery/Sorting S.O have longer working hours for all activities like PO savings bank, registered mail, speed post,international mail.

This was the practice before B.O were computerized.

The above was the British system of double, triple, checks, invented to prevent frauds knowing the skill & capability of indians.

After P.O Core System launch, all B.O’s have become as S.O’s non delivery in urban, metro cities or B.O’s delivery/Non-delivery in interior rural villages directly controlled and answerable to H.O without S.O delivery intervention through TCS core system integration for PoS & Infosys finacle software for Small savings accounts.

Example:A B.O can order Repayment Cheques for Small Savings NSC MIS KVP Directly from H.O without routing through S.O Delivery.

S.O Delivery can keep stock of maximum cash of Rs 1,00,000/- in their Strong Room British Era Iron Chests overnight till next day morning when P.O opens for business whereas all B.O D/Non Delivery have to return daily cash above Rs 10,000/- in sealed packets with weight back to H.O by same day end evening.

An Example of My Own Area.

1-New Delhi G.P.O is H.O Pin Code-110001 i.e Director G.P.O New Delhi-110 001.

Under it there are about 25 or more S.O’s of different PIN Codes 110005,110008,110060,110012,110055.

My main delivery S.O is Karol Bagh, Gurudwara Road,New Delhi-110005. This is 2.5 kms from my home situated in prime Central Delhi Karol Bagh commercial area serving many biggest wholesale markets near it like mobiles & accessories, fancy shoes, gold silver ware jewellery, auto parts & accessories,school college books publishers, sellers etc !

Under the same pin 110005 there are 7 S.O operating all non-delivery each now independent and answerable to H.O i.e Director G.P.O New Delhi-110001(7 kms from Karol Bagh S.O called Gol Dak Khaana established by the British which is in the form of a Round Circle(Gol) Dak Khaana means Mail Office !

Near my home 0.4 kms away is S.O Sat Nagar 110005 Non Delivery which works from 09:00–15:00, 15:30,16:45 hrs

Delivery S.O Karol Bagh Gurudwara Road operates from 10.00 Hrs to 15:00 hrs for Financial Txns and till 20:30 hrs for Registered, Speed Post & Money Order.

All incoming mail of Karol Bagh Area(PIN 110005) about 7 Kms Radius Circle is received & distributed from this S.O Delivery by 8 postmen.

Last post box dropped mail collection is till 18:00 hrs while as 7 S.O non delivery under 110005 work till 15:00/15:30/16:45 hrs for various works like Post Office Savings Bank, Money Order, Registered & Speed Post,Postal Stamp Sale,Enquiry.

All mail collected from 25 Post Boxes (110005) once a day @ 12:30 p.m within this 7 kms Radius are brought to S.O Gurudwara Road Karol Bagh New Delhi-110005 for sorting & forwarding !

Till year 2003 end before e-mail,Mobile calls,SMS, became regular, in my Local S.O Delivery, it was 24*7 with 8 Hrs Shift for Mail Sorting, Both Incoming Delivery & Outgoing Mail Rcvd at Counters & those Collected from Post Boxes !

At 1100 hrs Ordinary Mail,1400 hrs Registered Speed Post,1730 hrs Ordinary Mail with Urgent Speed Post was delivered to our Area !

In those times a STD calls costed Rs 100 per minute from PCO’s during day & Rs 25 p.m at night from 2200 hrs to 0600 hrs.

Example 2-In interior of Uttar Pradesh East in Rural Villages, Naugarh Tehsil, District Siddharth Nagar there is a small town named Birdpur S.O Delivery PIN-272202 with all Postal & small savings facilities including Airmail,Western Union Money transfer,EMS International Speed Post.

This Birdpur S.O comes under Bansi H.O pin code 272153 Basti postal division U.P. The distance between them is 33 kms by road.

Under this Birdpur S.O there are 7 B.O Delivery with same pin code 272202 under which different villages have been segregated.

Like B.O Delivery Alidapur, Bishnupurwa, Narkul, Mudila Khatai, Panchgawan, Birdpur 7, Piparsan, Parsa Belhari, which are upto 15 Kms from Birdpur S.O Delivery!

These B.O Delivery are rented sorting 7′*7′*1 Room Shanty's with a Wall Nailed Post Box to post letters plus Table Chair, Table Fan & Pigeon Hole Racks in Front to Sort Mail ! Nothing more !

No Regd Post,M.O,Speed Post, can be booked NoR Postcard, Inland, Stamps can be bought ! Even to answer nature's calls the staff have to use open field ! After Swachcha Bharatha program some improvements could have been made on this front after 2014.

One three Wheeler Mail Van brings mail from Birdpur S.O to these B.O's daily & after sorting, these B.O, deliver the mail, to the villages under them ! The Staff working in these B.O's travel in these Mail Vans or by Cycle directly from their homes upto 15 Kms each side & upto 15 kms from these B.O’s to interior villages to deliver letters.

So for these villagers both S.O & B.O Delivery are important Post Offices to remember & write in their addresses for the mail to reach them promptly !

Before the Telecom STD/Mobile revolution in India & even now in remotest interiors of rural India a B.O Village Delivery Sorting Mail cum delivery Postman was/is the most sought after person & treated by each village household as their own family member,offered Tea, Snacks, Biddi's,Burritto’s for bringing them Important Employment letters on time like those delivered to U-Boat Submarine Crew in Middle Atlantic Ocean in World War-2.

I did a Income Tax PAN Card Application Work for a Villager on 19-Jun-2018 & it was delivered to one B.O Mudila Khatai (272202) under which his Village Manjhariya_Bajaha comes on 04–Jul-2018 plus I've visited these villages myself in March-2014 & seen these B.O’s & S.O's so writing from Experience !

Refer this for more clarity on New Delhi Postal Circle.

Writing the above made me remember those nostalgic days in 1990-2002 when during four consecutive postal or festival holidays, post boxes, used to be filled with mail overflowing from top !

When one ’d to send important reply letters during the same day by evening for received mail in morning one ’d to rush to the Post Box to post the mail before collection time & if missed chase the box clearer mail man & handover the mail to him so that it would be loaded on same days night train or flight !

A special RMS Coach was attached to Long distance trains which were called “Mail” like Frontier Mail in which mail sorting happened during train running. Large mail rucksacks were thrown on platforms & mails sacks picked up by RMS Coach for delivery enroute in the steam engine era on long distance trains like JAT-CAPE Train # 16317/8 Himsagar Express.

After posting letters, I used to wonder, as to, where 'd be my posted letter at a given point in time, in it’s 5 days journey, wishing I’d a handheld Led Display Monitoring System, like Flights crossing a programmed way point Navigation Radio Beacon ! None could fathom then that each person in future 'd be having a smartphone in hand like now.

Then due to volume of mail, post boxes were segregated in green, red, blue for local,national,metro city mails ! They used to be painted regularly in Post Office red paint a special color shade & as a 7 year old Chandamama magazine child, I used to watch it, with keen interest fascination.

Innocently I used to ask my parents as how the letters put in the post box don't go to “Bhuma Devi” i.e the “Goddess of Earth” but reach others.

Now 3 post boxes outside my Residential area in red are lying deserted, dusty with none to care, admire, adore, respect them,about their service rendered in the past. It has been years,they haven't been painted ! But they are opened daily once @ 12:30 p.m(Seen 09–09–2019) by postal staff !

Technology & Time destroyed them but still they have their use like the good old bicycle,Wireline Phone,2G Feature Phone, MW/FM Radio, Pocket book/Paper Pen Pencil,Calculator.

As on 31/03/2019 India Post is operating at a net loss of 15,000 crores next to BSNL MTNL Air India.

Swami Aniruddha !