The Department of Posts, which forms a part of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is responsible for the planning, development, expansion of operation and maintenance of Postal Services in the country. It also discharges certain agency functions in respect of Savings Bank and other Small Savings Schemes, collection of customs duty on Postal articles and disbursement of pension to Military and Railway pensioners, Family pension to Industrial Employees of Coal Mines etc.
The Department administers Postal Life Insurance for the benefit of Postal, Telecom and other Central Govt. Employees and Employees of State Governments, Public Sector Undertakings, Nationalized Banks and Local bodies etc. Planning and Policy-making at Headquarters. The Postal Services Board is the apex management body of the Department, comprising the Chairman (who is also the Secretary, Department of Posts and Director General) and six Members. The six members of the Board hold functional portfolios of Operations, Personnel, PLI, HRD, Technology and Planning. The Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor to the Department is a permanent invitee to the Board. The Secretary, Postal Services Board, assists the Board. Deputy Directors General, Directors and Assistant Directors General provide necessary support to the Board at the Headquarters.
Postal Circles For providing postal services, the whole country has been divided in to 22 Postal circles extending postal services to 30 States and 6 UTs. Each circle is co-terminus with a State except (i) the North Eastern Circle, which comprises six North Eastern States, (ii) Maharashtra circle which includes Goa, (iii) West Bengal Circle includes Sikkim and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, (iv) Kerala circle includes the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and Mahe District of Puducherry (UT), (v) Punjab Circle includes the Union Territory of Chandigarh, (vi) Gujarat circle includes Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli (UT), (vii) Andhra Pradesh Circle includes Telangana State and (viii) Tamil Nadu Circle includes Union Territory of Puducherry ( Except Mahe District).
The Chief Postmaster General heads each Circle. Each Circle is divided into Regions comprising groups of field units, called Divisions (Postal / RMS Divisions). Each Region is headed by a Postmaster General. In the Circles , DAP and Regions, there are other functional supporting logistics units like Circle Stamp Depots, Postal Store Depots and Mail Motor Service.
Army Postal Services Over and above these 22 Circles, the communication needs of the armed forces are catered to by the Base Circle. Base Circle is headed by the Additional Director General, Army Postal Service. The officer cadre of Army Postal Services is drawn on deputation from the Indian Postal Service. 75 % of the other ranks of the Army Postal Service are drawn from the Department of Posts and the remaining personnel are recruited by the Army.
Operational Units:-There are 21 GPOs presently functioning in the country. They are: Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh Circle), Guwahati (Assam Circle), Patna(Bihar), Delhi (Delhi), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Ambala (Haryana), Shimla (Himachal Pradesh),Sri Nagar (Jammu& Kashmir), Ranchi (Jharkhand),Bangalore (Karnataka),Thiruvanantapuram (Kerala), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh),Mumbai (Maharashtra),Shillong(North East),Bhubaneswar Orissa), Chandigarh(Punjab), Jaipur (Rajasthan),Chennai(Tamil Nadu), Dehradun (Uttrakhand), Lucknow Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata (West Bengal Circle).
Kausik chennai: Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy (RAKNPA), Ghaziabad is the Apex Training Institution and caters to the training needs of the managerial cadres of India Post. It conducts induction training of Indian Postal Service officers and mid-carrier training programmes for Indian Postal Service officers. It also conducts Induction Training for Gr.`B‟ officers besides some specialized need based training's on technology, Marketing and other fields of importance.
There are six Postal Training Centers at Darbhanga, Guwahati, Madurai, Mysore, Saharanpur and Vadodra. These Training Centres cater to the training needs of Inspectorial cadre (Inspector Posts/Assistant Superintendents of Posts) and all Gr. `C‟ employees (Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants. They also conduct induction training for the Inspector Posts and for Postal Assistants/Sorting Assistants.
383 Workplace Training Centres (WTCs) in circles are operational. These WTCs cater to the training needs of various categories of staff near their work place.
There are also 5 Zonal Training Centres (ZTCs) which cater to training needs of the Postal Accounts Personnel. Engineering wing comprising of Architectural, Civil and Electrical Engineering disciplines is entrusted with design and construction of all Major & Minor building projects and maintenance of buildings in the Department.
