Gramin Dak Sevaks or GDS are the rural postal workers in Indian Postal department under ministry of communications. Of course, they are working under India Post but, they aren’t fall under Postal departmental civil servants and considered as a extradepartmental staff . GDS acts as a bridge between rural communities and government.
India Post operating Post offices in every village or Panchayat. Post Office in panchayat or village called branch office. Branch office could hold up to maximum of three number of GDS officials. Gramin Dak Sevaks are divided into GDS BPM, GDS MD, GDS MC and GDS Packer. In recent years GDS MC and MD named as GDS ABPM.
Gramin Dak Sevaks
GDS BPM
BPM or Branch Post Master works at village level. If villages are small with less number of people then near by villages can together have a single Post Office. Every Branch Office holds a BPM. The role of Branch Post Master bounds to several responsibilities.
- Mails : Overseeing incoming and outgoing mails. Maintaining records of mails related to BO Delivery area. Selling stamps, products and other stationary. Needs to keep up to date transaction records.
- Banking services : Providing India Post Banking related services to customers. Providing several banking deposits and withdrawals of SB,RD,TD,SSA,MIS and KVP etc. Additionally IPPB(India Post Payments Bank) services also delivered by GDS BPM.
- Doorstep Banking : BPM mingles with village people and provides various Post Office schemes via Doorstep Banking at their homes.
GDS ABPM
Assistant Brach Post Master(ABPM) works together with BPM in the rural areas of India Post. plays vital role in Postal services. GDS MC and MD falls under ABPM category.
- Mail Carry : GDS ABPM needs to carry mail bags between Sub Post Office(SO) and BO or between two BO’s viceversa. He/She is responsible for mail bags until handing over to appropriate authority. Should not open or mishandle the bags during mail carry.
- Delivery : After bag reached to Branch Office BPM will open it and note down every single article that has been received by BO. BPM will hand over articles and delivery manifest to ABPM. Now, Assistant Branch Post Master will deliver all articles in time. Returns or hand overs remaining articles to BPM.
- Doorstep Banking : ABPM Provides Doorstep Banking services to people in his/her BO delivery beat area.
GDS Packer
GDS Packer mainly works in the main offices like Sub Post Office or Head Post Office. His/her work would be packing mail bags. After sorting articles or mails according to their “To” addresses then packer will pack everything in the bags then hand overs to Mail Carriers. If packer is working in the HO, then he/she pack bags to Sub Offices’ or Divisional Offices vice versa. if he/she is working in Sub Office then he/she handles bags between SO to Bo or So to Ho vice versa.
Conclusion
We have reached to end of the article regarding Gramin Dak Sevaks and their vital role in the Indian Postal department. As, technology developed now, everything became digital but, during 19th century everyone depended on Gramin Dak Sevaks and India Post to communicate with others and to send money orders to people who love all over the world.
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