COIMBATORE: In a first, the working hours of some head post offices in the western region (Coimbatore) have been extended from 8 to 12 hours, bringing relief to customers.
Head post offices located on RS Puram and Goodshed Road in the city and in Pollachi started working from 8 am to 8 pm from June 7, based on an order issued by Sumitha Ayodhya, postmaster general, western region (Coimbatore).
A senior officer in the postal department said, “A large number of people use postal services every day. Usually, the working hours for a HPO is from 10 am to 3 pm. Officers of the western region took the decision to extend the working hours so that working people can transact after their office hours.
As per the decision, out of the 21 head post offices in the western region, those located on RS Puram, Goodshed Road, Pollachi, Suramangalam, Namakkal, and Tiruchengodu have been working from 8 am to 8 pm since last week. The head post in Dharmapuri will switch to the new timings from Monday.”
All services, including SB account, RD, SSA, TD, MIS, SCSS, MSSC, KVP, and NYSC will now be available from 8 am to 8 pm.
N Sivashamugam, convener, National Federation of Postal Employee, western region, TN Circle welcomed the change. “Considering consumer welfare, for the first time, working hours have been extended in head post offices in the western region (Coimbatore). For instance, consumers who have to go to office by 9 am or 10 am can come to the head post office and make transactions or use other services. Like this, they can come to the head post office after completing office work. Due to this, their work will not get affected on working days. Besides, we can reduce crowd.”
He hoped that it would be useful to the consumers who are using the head post office frequently. “In a way that does not affect employees’ work, the postal department switched working hours from one shift which was 10 am to 3 pm to three shifts. The first shift is 8 am to 4 pm, the second shift is 10 am to 6 pm and the third shift is 1 pm to 9 pm. There is a good response to this among the consumers,” he said.
A consumer, K Jayaraj, told TNIE, “I have Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account, but have no time to go to the head post office in RS Puram to pay the monthly premium. So my wife will have to go to the post office pay the amount amidts her daily works. Now that the timings has been extended, I can pay the premium myself.”