NEWS-INDIA: e-post to be launched in six states

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

e-post to be launched in six states

by Krittivas Mukherjee, India Abroad News Service

Kolkata, Jan 23 - The next time the postman rings the doorbell, don't be
surprised if you are simply handed a piece of paper with a few words on it
rather than a postcard, envelope or aerogramme.

And mind you, the sender would spend nothing. It's the person the mail is
addressed to who would have to shell out money to receive the message.

This is how things will be when the Indian government goes hi-tech with its
postal system. To start with, the e-post scheme would be introduced in the
six states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and West
Bengal.

e-post, as the electronic postal service to be introduced at select post
offices has been christened, will entail downloading messages from the
Internet, printing them and delivering them at the doorstep of the
addressee.

The facility would be available in three categories. The delivery of
ordinary e-mail would cost Rs. 10 per message, premium mail would cost Rs.
15 per message and extraordinary mail, delivered by special messengers,
would cost Rs. 20 per message. It was not yet clear what happens to a
message whose addressee refuses to either receive it or pay for it.

Union Minister of State for Communication Tapan Sikdar told reporters that
the scheme would be test-run in the six states since they have the largest
number of people staying abroad. The scheme would be introduced in about 200
post offices in the six states. Efforts are on to provide Internet
connections to these post offices.

"With private players cashing in through various speed post schemes, we
cannot afford to lag behind. The objective of e-post is to offer an
efficient and prompt communication facility," Sikdar said, adding that the
need for such a service has been felt for long and the demand is "rapidly
growing".

But some quarters of the postal department are of the view that the scheme
would not be cost-effective and lead to increased paperwork and a whole lot
of complications for the department.

An undeterred Sikdar, however, brushed aside such skeptics and said e-post
would be popularized through a sustained advertising campaign.

--India Abroad News Service