Your letter may be sold as scrap

Post at your own risk. Recently, over 200 letters meant to be delivered were found at a scrap dealer’s shop near the city’s Navlakha bus stand, reports Punya Priya Mitra.

Here is one reason why some letters never reach their intended destination. Recently, over 200 letters meant to be delivered were found at a scrap dealer’s shop near the city’s Navlakha bus stand.

HT Image

Scrap dealer Azam told police and postal department officials that a postman had sold him the letters, weighing around 3 kilograms, on Saturday. It was the second time the postman had sold letters to Azam.

The matter came to light when some residents of the area noticed the letters and saw that they had a June postmark. Many letters had addresses of colonies in and around the Navlakha area and the Sapna Sangeeta Colony.

Suspecting there was something wrong, several people gathered at the scrap dealer’s shop, demanding to see whether any letters were addressed to them or to people known to them. The police too were informed.

The bunch sold to the scrap dealer included many telephone bills, bank statements, credit card bills and other such documents.

Madhvi Dabral, director, postal services, told the Hindustan Times that an inquiry had been initiated into the case and a report would be submitted to her within three days.

She said that they found around 250 letters, all posted after June 15, and all from one beat that is, their distribution was the responsibility of one postman. She said that it was likely that the letters had been sold to the waste-paper dealer by another beat postman due to rivalry between the postmen.

“It is hardly likely that the postman of the concerned beat will sell his own letters,” she said.

Dabral added that since many of the letters were telephone bills and Life Insurance Corporation policy-premium notices, they had contacted the respective departments to issue duplicates and waive the fines for delayed payment.