The telegram may be dead and gone. But it's place has been taken over by another service which India Post had launched in 2004. “The e-post is the new superstar of India Post. The response was latent initially but the last one year saw it growing manyfold,” T Moorthy, chief post master general, Tamil Nadu Postal Circle, told The Pioneer on Friday. He was speaking on the new initiatives launched by India Post in connection with National Postal week which began on October 9.
The e-post could be sent from any of the 1.55 lakh post offices spread across the length and breadth of India for a paltry charge of Rs 10. “It is cheap but much faster. All you have to do is to bring the hard copy or soft copy of the matter to the post office. Our staff will scan it, put in digital format and mail it to the post office of the addressee. The receiving post office will take a printout, put it in an envelope marked e-cover and deliver it at the door step of the addressee,” explained Moorthy. He explained that e-post has eliminated the digital divide in the country.
“The chief electoral office of Tamil Nadu, most of the local bodies and Government offices have switched over to the service. The period from April 2014 to August 2014 saw Tamil Nadu Postal Circle alone delivering more than 2,00 000 messages. “This is more than the number of telegrams we delivered during the last few years. The e-post is the new telegram,” said Moorthy.
July 15, 2013 saw the 163-year-old telegram service in the country coming to an end. The last day of the telegram service turned out to be an eventful day with global media focussing its attention to India eulogising the mode of instant communication in an era when telephone connections belonged only to the privileged.
"With a mobile phone in virtually everyone's palm even in rural India the telegram had to give way to the new age," wrote a nostalgic Chnadan Mitra, editor-in-chief, The Pioneer as an elegy to the instant communication tool which ruled the roost for nearly two centuries.