No postmasters in six Manikganj upazilas and 65 posts vacant in two subdivisions: postal service runs on stand-ins

A total of 65 posts, including an assistant inspector's post, are vacant in the Postal Department's Manikganj subdivision and the Savar subdivision in Dhaka district. In six of Manikganj's seven upazilas, the post of upazila postmaster itself is empty, so staff from other posts are carrying out the postmasters' duties.

Post offices in the Savar and Dhamrai areas are also suffering staff shortages at various levels. Postal officials say that besides exchanging letters, the offices handle parcel acceptance and delivery, official correspondence and various kinds of financial transactions, and that services are being disrupted for want of the necessary staff.

The picture emerged from information obtained after an application under the Right to Information Act to the office of Dhaka's Deputy Postmaster General (DPMG), after the post offices concerned did not provide the information sought about the staff crisis in Manikganj, Savar and Dhamrai.

According to the information received, there are eight upazila post offices in total: six in Manikganj, including the district's main post office in Manikganj Sadar upazila, plus Savar and Dhamrai in Dhaka. There are also 10 sub-post offices, 54 branch post offices, four undivisional sub-post offices (UDSOs) and 82 extra-departmental branch post offices (EDBOs).

In the Manikganj subdivision, the upazila postmaster posts are vacant at the Saturia, Ghior, Daulatpur, Shibalaya and Harirampur upazila post offices. Also vacant there are three sub-postmaster posts, five postal operator posts, six postman posts, four packer posts, four runner posts and 11 EDA (part-time agent) posts — 38 vacant posts in this subdivision in all.

In the Savar subdivision, covering Savar, Dhamrai and Singair in Manikganj, another 27 posts are vacant, including the upazila postmaster post at Singair. Also vacant are one assistant inspector post, seven sub-postmaster posts, three postal operator posts, four postman posts, four packer posts, two runner posts and five EDA posts — bringing the two subdivisions' total to 65 vacancies.

At Saturia upazila post office, postal operator Mustakur Rahman has been carrying out the postmaster's duties for more than a year because the post is vacant. 'Even though I am a postal operator, I have to do the upazila postmaster's job. I am given no extra financial benefit for it,' he said.

Savar upazila postmaster Monowara Begum said the number of people using post offices fell considerably after courier services spread in the country, but that in recent years the tendency to send letters and parcels through the post has risen again. Several hundred letters and parcels arrive at Savar post office every day from abroad and from around the country, all of which must be delivered to their recipients, and several hundred more are deposited there daily for delivery inside and outside the country.

'It is not only letters and parcels — we also have to do official work and financial transactions at the post office. Without the necessary staff we are struggling to manage the daily work,' Monowara Begum said. She said Savar upazila post office has an assistant inspector post but nobody in it, one postal operator working against three posts, two postmen against three posts, and no packer at all in a post that should have one — and that no action has been taken even after the matter was reported to the higher authorities.

The Jahangirnagar University sub-post office also has a staff crisis: its sub-postmaster post has long been vacant, and a postal operator is being made to carry out the duties. Kalyani Rani Saha, the postal operator in charge there, said: 'I have been doing the sub-postmaster's duties for a long time. I do not know how long this will go on.'

The shortage is also affecting people and organisations that regularly send letters and parcels — especially those who use the postal service for government and private office letters, job applications, educational institutions' papers, important documents and business parcels. Rubel Hossain, an HR officer of Aspire Garments Limited in the Dhalla area of Singair upazila, Manikganj, often has to come to Savar post office to register his company's letters. He said that because of the staff crisis, the post office only stamps the envelopes and registers them online, and he has to do the rest himself — and that not long ago he had to do the initial registration work for about 300 letters himself.

Savar post office postman Akmal Hossain said: 'My job is to deliver letters and parcels. But alongside delivery I also have to do office work, including bank work.'

Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, post office inspector of the Savar subdivision, said the offices' normal activities are being disrupted by the staff shortage and that all the work has to be run with the staff available; whether the vacant posts will be filled soon cannot be said. Mohammad Naim, inspector of the Manikganj subdivision, did not respond when called on his mobile phone about the shortage.