Now the postal department in Bangladesh is not delivering any letter within Dhaka city despite the fact that every day, hundreds of letters, documents and newspapers are received by the central post office and other post offices of the city with commitment of delivering those on time.
Ten years ago, the postal department used to deliver letters or documents to any address within Dhaka city within 24-48 hours. Now the picture is totally different. Copies of the printed edition of Blitz newspaper were sent from Gulshan Post Office and GPO about 20 days ago, but till today there is no trace of those mailed copies of the newspaper. By making phone calls and paying physical visits to those post offices, our staffs did not get any answer from the officials concerned as to why the Bangladesh Postal Service has suddenly turned totally non-performing.
However, a postal official who did not want to be named said that the local courier services are bribing the concerned officers and employees with huge amount of money every month so that the letters, documents or newspapers sent by postal service are not delivered. Because, if the postal service is stopped or proved to be irregular, people will switch to courier services. And that is exactly what has been happening now.
The official said that the postal department is being systematically killed by some dishonest officers and employees. And they are committing such crimes almost openly. He said that the government should immediately issue a stern warning to the postal department and announce the abolition of the postal service if it fails to ensure the quality of service to the people.
He also said, “every country in the world has postal services as well as courier services. They provide services in competition with each other. But Bangladesh is an exception. If you go to post offices, you will see their surprising reluctance to deliver letters, documents or newspapers. No one is willing to do this, as they are under secret agreement with the courier services. They get cash as bribe regularly, while they are taking salary every month from the state treasury”.
The official said that the ministry concerned should take initiative on an urgent basis to stop this irregularity in the postal department. The officials of the postal department who are playing the role of brokers to increase the business of the courier services by taking bribes from them and stopping the delivery of letters, documents and newspapers should be identified and disciplinary action should be taken against them and they should be fired immediately.
