Srinagar, Sep 24: Nisar Ahmad (name changed) had been struggling hard to find a job. After a lot of efforts, he finally landed a lucrative job in Bangalore, but the good news never reached him.
“Your joining letter was lying with us for the last one and half month but unfortunately we couldn’t deliver it due to prevailing situation,” replied a GPO official when Nisar enquired about the letter.
Crestfallen by the reply, Nisar quietly sobbed in a corner of the post office while reading the contents of the letter. The joining letter had arrived from Bangalore in early August. As per the letter, he had to join Bangalore office within 15 days.
“I waited for more than a month. When the letter didn’t come, I thought I should myself check with the post office. Here the employees categorically said no parcel sent from outside has been remitted to any district since August 5 when the lockdown happened,” said Nisar.
Lockdown has hit the postal services hard with hundreds of parcels and letters piling up in the GPO inventory
Sample this: A man in his forties pleaded for hours at the counter to get his parcel dispatched to Block Medical Office, Baramulla, but he too received a cold shoulder from the GPO employees.
“I desperately want this parcel to be dispatched. It is salary related. You know the hard times we are living in,” he said.
Salim, a youth from Zakura, waited for hours at the GPO counter to receive the parcel sent by his friend from Delhi more than a month ago.
“I had requested my friend to send me some medicines for my ailing grandmother. I managed to call him from our neighbour’s landline which was restored a few weeks ago. I was surprised when he told me that the parcel had already been sent,” Salim said.
An official from GPO expressed helplessness over the suspension of the services.
“We are fully aware how much difficulty people are facing due to the delayed deliveries of parcels but we are totally helpless. We cannot deliver parcels to any district right now not even within the Srinagar city,” he said.
