Communications and IT
Minister Kapil Sibal has called for restructuring of 150-year-old Department of
Post by separating its regulatory and services functions to meet challenges of
technological age.
“The postal department
should also restructure itself to meet challenges of 21st century. The
Department of Post (DoP) should look into prospect of bifurcating the Ministry
from the regulator and the operator, just as was done in the telecom sector,”
Sibal told PTI.
He said that the DoP
should explore possibility of having different entities namely policy making,
regulator and service provider.
“No decision has been
taken yet. It is all a matter of debate and dialogue at the moment,” Sibal
said.
DoP, which has around 5
lakh employees, is responsible for policy making, regulation and providing
postal services, at present.
The over 100-year old
Indian Post Office Act bars any individual or entity from delivering letters
for commercial purpose. The business of private courier companies is built
around delivering documents, parcels and others items which do not fall under
the category of ‘letter’.
Sources in the Ministry
said that Sibal held a meeting with DoP officials early this week on the issue
of finanlisation of the National Postal Policy 2012 and asked them to prepare
roadmap for restructuring as well.
They said that next
meeting on the issue is expected to take place in 15 days.
They said that the
Minister, in June, had asked DoP to set up a body to oversee the unbundling of
its functions.
An independent body
named Postal Development Board (PDB) will be responsible for the overall
development and governance of the postal sector, they added. The PDB will also
draw a road-map for unbundling of postal department functions.
The Minister had also
instructed DoP to constitute a Postal Advisory Board (PAB), in line with
Telecom Commission, which should have representation from Government, industry
players, academics and other stakeholders, they said. The role of PAB will be
to provide inputs to PDB on policy matters.
The government in 1997
created the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to regulate the
sector. Under New Telecom Policy 1999, Government further restructured DoT by
separating service providing function from it.
Source : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com
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