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The sub-post office on Fourth Main Road that handles all services is manned by a lone woman. Photo: R Krishnamurthy

        A sub-post office on a busy market place on Fourth Main Road in suburban Nanganallur is understaffed. This has put to much hardship the people going there to avail themselves of postal services.

        T S Vaidyaraman, a retired bank official, residing on 10th Street, Nanganallur, said, 'it is distressing that only two employees work in this sub-post office.'

        When contacted, an official in the Postal Department in-charge of the overall control of the post offices in this region, told News Today that 'soon after the issue of understaffed post offices was brought to the notice of the department's higher-ups, an official would be sent for evaluation and inspection. And on his findings the specific post office may be upgraded or merged with other post office. Strengthening the post offices is the discretion of the Postmaster General.'

        This particular sub-post office is being managed by a lone woman and recently her assistant was also removed from office. There is enough space and this sub-post office accepts all types of service, and could be eligible to become a regular post office, being in service for a quite a long time, Vaidyaraman said.

        It is said that the controlling office is not St Thomas Mount head post office, but the Nungambakkam Post Office, where the controlling office is reported to have been shifted, he added.

        Suburban post offices are given the least attention in spite of growing population, services handled and its public utilisation, even though the areas fall under city periphery, some of the residents said. As if this was not enough, the letters posted at this office reach the addressee in other parts of the city on third or fourth day and on any account within a week's time, Narasimhan, a resident of Thillai Ganga Nagar, said.

        It is further understood that there is dearth of staff deployed in all the suburban post offices and a mammoth organisation such as Post and Telegraph Department having been segregated into two exclusive wings of the Central Government, the ultimate sufferers are the public. Postal services are much in wanting, a resident said.

        'The common man will continue to suffer in the years to come and being part of Central government, our State government can do very little in this respect, unless our elected representatives MLAs and MPs take it up with the authorities concerned, in spite of their various other assignments,' Veerusamy, a resident of Thillai Ganga Nagar, said.