The Army Postal Service - Messenger of Peace

The Army Postal Service Messenger of Peace

APS Officials at a philately exhibition

Cancelled 'First Day Cover' of overseas operation on display

APS Corps personnel sorting mails

APS Corps personnel on duty

The Army Postal Service which celebrated its 41st anniversary recently provides yeomen service to the Armed Forces personnel deployed across the country by delivering mail on time. Major General AK Shori, DG, APS speaks to Ms Pratima Veerendra Singh, Editor, Sainik Samachar on how APS functions as an emotional bridge between the troops and their families...

Army Postal Service (APS) traces its beginning to 1856, and has now become the country-wide network for the Indian Armed Forces. Could you trace the evolution of the Corps?

Field Post Offices accompanied the British Forces to many Frontier Campaigns and expeditions to Abyssinia, Malta/Cyprus, Afghanistan, Egypt, Burma, Sudan, China, Tibet and Somaliland in the 19th century. During the two World Wars, the Field Post Offices served in all the far-flung theatres of war in Europe, Africa and Asia.

After independence, Army Postal Service functioned as a wing of the Army Service Corps till it was given an independent status as APS on March 1, 1972 in recognition of its specific role in boosting the morale of the soldiers and improving the communication network in the Armed Forces.

Besides receiving, dispatching and distribution of mail of Armed Forces Organisations, which are the various fields now being covered by the APS Corps?

Thanks to easy availability of mobile and Internet facility at the doorstep, the inter-personal mails traffic has gone down drastically in the last five years. However, at the same time the technology is opening new opportunities also. For example, printed mail is increasing and thereby maintaining the balance of volume handled by APS. The volume of letters from Jawans to family and vice versa is coming down due to rapid expansion of mobile phone connectivity, but at the same time business mail like delivery of debit/credit cards, pins of debit/credit cards, monthly bank statements, promotional mail, magazines, periodicals etc have increased and continue to increase every year.

Moreover, e-commerce is giving us new opportunities as the soldiers can place the orders through Internet, but the consignments are to be physically delivered. The traffic of volume of parcel mail is also increasing from Jawans/Officers to families and their near and dear ones due to increased capacity to purchase. Therefore, the general perception is not a fact.

Over the years, APS has expanded its horizons by introducing many new services like Postal Life Insurance, Savings Bank, Speed Post, e-MO, e-Post, Field Postal Order etc. FPOs provide postal cover to Indian contingents of UN Peacekeeping Forces also. Field Post Offices have accompanied UN Missions to Mozambique, Somalia, Angola, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Congo, Sudan and Israel.

As you said, Indian Post & Telegraph Department has launched various services. What is the network for implementation? What is the progress?

A good number of schemes have been introduced by DOP and APS also ensures that those are made available to the troops and their families.

'My Stamp' is a new product introduced by DOP and APS. It is a kind of personalised stamp; a facility through which one can get his photograph printed adjacent to the stamp perforation. As the photo is printed inside a perforation, the photo of individual becomes part and parcel of the stamp. Initially the service was introduced to be availed of through especially established 'My Stamp' stalls during special occasions such as 'Special Cover Release Function', 'Deewali Mela', 'Army Day Exhibition' etc. Due to growing demand, facility of 'My Stamp-Retail' has been provided for troops through all FPOs. Under 'My Stamp - Retail' facility customer has to provide a good quality photograph along with Rs. 300 as fee.

How does APS manage this huge responsibility? Has the economic scenario affected the system?

We provide all such services through a vast network of Field Post Offices. We also keep coordination with Department of Posts (DOP) to see which of the new services introduced by DOP can be made available through FPO to Jawans and their families. The savings habits are changing because of the economic scenario. The savings opportunities earlier were limited to Small Savings schemes or National Savings Certificates; but today a variety of schemes like Monthly Income scheme, Public Provident Fund and Mutual funds and SIPs of UTI are also available through FPOs to the troops and the families.

Our troops are located in the most hazardous and far flung areas, what is the organisational strength of the APS Corps to perform this task?

We do have Field Post Offices up to not only at Brigade level, but even further down to take care of specific operational requirements and all the services are made available to the units.

Apart from Army, who else are the beneficiaries of APS services?

Apart from Army, we serve Air Force, Border Roads, Assam Rifles and other paramilitary troops which are deployed in field areas.

Does any other department or organisation share this responsibility with APS? If so, is it mutually beneficial?

To make sure that the quality of training is excellent, three IT training labs have been established in three different sectors – Eastern, Northern and Western. These are called Zonal Training Labs. All these labs have been equipped with state-of-the-art technology equipment and have started full-fledged training since July 2012. Now APS personnel posted at far-flung areas need not travel from their locations to APS centres. In addition to these three IT training labs, an additional IT training lab has been established in APS centre to take care of increasing need of IT training. We are creating trained pool of manpower to implement technology-oriented projects successfully.

What improvements, innovations and new steps have been taken by the Army Postal Service in the recent past? What are the future plans?

During last one year, generally our focus was to strengthen and improve the operational efficiency with the help of technology. We reviewed the mail arrangement of Speed Post so that delivery of this time-sensitive mail could be further improved. Special efforts were made to create awareness about the entire gamut of services provided by APS to troops, particularly newly launched debit Army ePost. Debit Army ePost has been accepted very well as a substitute to service telegram because of easy accessibility of FPO and user-friendly features of the service. Horizons of Philately were further opened with introduction of new service 'My Stamp'. Concept of 'Mobile FPO' has been launched for providing postal facilities at the doorstep of soldiers and user units.

Good communication is a basic need to keep the morale of the Armed Forces high, especially when they are deployed in far flung areas. How successful is the APS in acquitting its duties?

APS has been very successful in its efforts and the response of the troops and families is also very positive as the volumes keep on increasing every year. The number of accounts, Postal Life Insurance policies, traffic of Speed Post, Parcel etc, all are on the increase.

We are working on introduction of new service of 'Debit Army Logistics' for booking of parcels of army units, on debit basis in which units need not pay across the counter. The expenditure will be taken care of centrally on book adjustment basis. Discussion is also on with Reliance for sale of Gold Coins through FPOs on special concessional rates for Indian Army troops. Module of on-line posting of PLI premia deducted by CDAs is also under development in coordination with CGDA. Besides, we are working on establishing APS Net by linking FPOs and CBPOs through central data centre for providing Track & Trace of Registered SDS (Scheduled Despatch Services) mails, which shall be implemented in a phased manner. It will be a great facility to units in getting the status/disposal of important letters sent through Registered SDS. Increasing visibility and an awareness about services available through FPOs will be a continuous effort by installing touch- screen info kiosks at key locations.

Are you satisfied with the joint functioning of Civil Postal Services and APS? What more needs to be done?

We work shoulder to shoulder with the DOP since it is their products and services (except for SDS) which are made available through FPOs. A close coordination is maintained at all level with the DOP officials to make sure that the all operational activities are smooth.

What is your Message for the Postal Warriors?

The personnel manning FPOs and other offices are very hardworking, sincere and dedicated. It is because of their efforts that APS has been marching ahead, blending technology successfully. I wish them a grand success in the coming years so that APS remains relevant in the future also.

Source : http://sainiksamachar.nic.in/englisharchives/2013/mar16-13/h4.htm