'Alert citizen uses RTI to nail postal delay'

MUMBAI: Millions crib about snail mail but one aggrieved consumer used the Right To Information Act (RTI) to hold the postal department accountable for delay and to refund aggrieved customers promptly.


Thanks to Dahisar resident Kishanlal Mittal, the Secretary, Department of Posts, has been told to issue instructions to make it mandatory for every Speed Post Centre in the country to prominently display its delivery norms. The instructions came in an order by Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Deepak Sandhu on January 27, 2010.


The bureaucrat heading the postal department has also been directed to ensure that there are adequate telephone lines and manpower available to take complaints on telephone. Emails should be responded to promptly with an assurance that the complaint will be resolved in 7-10 days, says the order.


To ensure that the customer is not made to run from pillar to post for the refund, the order says that the booking centre should inform the complainant regarding his refund and ensure that he\she does not have to make multiple trips to the post office to lodge a complaint and claim refund.


Mittal's experience is that 90 % of parcels sent by Speed Post reach late and that one has to wait for six months to get a refund for delayed delivery.


He is not the only one to say that. Last year, Mahim resident Milind Mulay found out using the RTI that 27,774 Speed Post items booked from the Western suburbs of Mumbai did not reach addresses in Mumbai in time.


Last August, when an important document Mittal had sent to Kanpur by Speed Post reached four days late, he used the RTI to seek answers for questions pertaining to delivery norms of Speed Post, grievance redressal mechanism and refund in case of delayed delivery.


Since he was not satisfied by the answers he got from the central principal information officer, Mittal appealed to the first appellate authority. Here, too, he was disappointed with the reply and the matter went to the Central Information Commission, New Delhi.


On January 27, a hearing was held through video conferencing, where Mittal was represented by his son, Girish. Girish complained that Speed Post centres across the country do not display their delivery norms.


Agreeing with him, CIC Deepak Sandhu said that there is a wide gap between promise and performance when it comes to Speed Post. She noted in her order that while the customer is charged the full fees for an upgraded service, the exact nature of the service is not made transparent to him\her.


The secretary, department of posts, has been told to ensure compliance of the order in accordance with section 25(5) of the RTI Act, 2005.


How the law works


The Secretary, Department of Posts, has been told by the Central Information Commissioner Deepak Sandhu to ensure compliance of her order in accordance with section 25(5) of the RTI Act, 2005. This section says: ``If it appears to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be, that the practice of a public authority in relation to the exercise of its functions under this Act does not conform with the provisions or spirit of this Act, it may give to the authority a recommendation specifying the steps which ought, in its opinion, to be taken for promoting such conformity.''


Courtesy: Times of India