india

Updated: Mar 30, 2020 10:21 IST

New Delhi: On Wednesday, state-owned India Post got an urgent request. A Covid-19 automated testing machine on its way to Pune was stranded in Chennai.

Confronted with logistical issues like lack of train services and commercial flights following the 21-day lockdown, the postal service had to be innovative. It turned to the express delivery service Blue Dart, which has its own cargo aircraft, to ferry the package.The flight took off from Chennai at 10.30pm on Friday; the package reached Sasson General Hospital in Pune 12 hours later via Mumbai.

“We were supposed to deliver the machine on Tuesday,” Vishnu Raja, owner of Techbio Solutions that supplied the machine, told Hindustan Times. “We reached out to many providers after the lockdown, but it was only thanks to India Post that we could manage the delivery.”

Postal services, classified under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), have remained functional despite the lockdown although it has been hamstrung by the lack of transport services following the shutdown. The postal service is still doing its bit.

With 1,55,531 post offices, India Post is the largest postal network across the world. According to the Department of Post’s annual report 2018-19, it employs 4,18,818. Of these, around 39,000 are postmen in urban areas and 1,25,000 are gramin dak sevaks (or mail deliverers in rural areas).

“We are concentrating on essential commodities,” director general (post) Arundhaty Ghosh said. “We are facing problems due to railways and passenger flights being curtailed, but our arrangement with Blue Dart helped us streamline the process to deliver the Covid-19 testing machine.”

India Post personnel collected the consignment in Chennai after taking precautions like using masks and gloves, chief postmaster general (Tamil Nadu) Selva Kumar said.

India Post made several exceptions like putting aside the bureaucratic procedure of sorting mail, picked up the package in Mumbai, cleaned and sanitised it and sent it directly to Pune.

“We faced a half-an-hour delay since we didn’t know the size of the package,” postmaster general (Mumbai) Swati Pandey said. “We had arranged for a Tata Sumo, but then called for a van.”

The machine, which was imported at the end of February from the US, will help the Pune hospital increase the number of samples it can test and reduce the risk of error.

“Automation makes the process simpler and quicker,” Raja said. “Spain, US, Germany and Italy are doing it in a big way. India is not even testing those without a travel history yet, but eventually we will have to so that we can identify clusters and prevent the spread of the virus.”

India, at present, has one of the lowest testing rates across the world. “We are also in the process of supplying another model to AIIMS {All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi} which should reach early next week,” Raja added.

But the delivery of the machine is not the only thing India Post is doing to ease lockdown troubles.

“We are also delivering medicines,” Pandey said. “Day before yesterday, I shipped medicines to an old woman who lives in Andheri East. We are also in the process of tying up with Welcome Pharmaceuticals to supply medicines to various metro cities.”

The Mumbai unit of India Post is also aiming to deliver old-age pensions at the doorstep so people don’t have to visit the post office to collect them, Pandey added.

“The post banks are open,” she said. “Even during lockdown, people have come to open accounts. We just want to ensure that they can access their money.”

A similar approach is being taken in Uttar Pradesh. The priority is keeping India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) functional.

“Mail being delivered a day or two late isn’t really a problem,” said Rajeev Umrao, director of postal Services. “Our priority is to ensure that people from less privileged background are able to access their money, so we are working to ensure the IPPBs are functional.”