Sheikh Mudassir Amin of Islamabad, south Kashmir lost an opportunity to secure admission in direct PhD Course offered by Kurekshetra University. The reason: Postal delay.
Mudassir had applied for admission in the Central University of Kurekshetra. He would receive an acknowledgment card from the varsity to get confirmation and proceed to fulfill further formalities of the admission. The last date for completing the formalities was November 15. Mudassir received his acknowledgment card on November 22.
The seven days delay cost Mudassir a chance to pursue a doctoral degree.
He contacted the university requesting to consider his case, but they had a simple answer, “Postal delay is your problem, not ours.”
Mudassir went to post office to complain where he was told that, “We receive mail late from Srinagar due to hartal (shutdowns) and that is why all this happened.”
Mudassir says he can do nothing “but regret”. “This is career spoilage,” he said.
The postal delay is becoming a nuisance for people who have to get things done in a time bound manner. Some students alleged that customer care (of postal services) is poor.
“No body listens there. I was made to go from pillar to post, but to no avail,” said Rashid Saleem, a scholar who has applied in Ujjain University for PhD in Zoology.
Rashid received acknowledgment card two months after the last date.
While delays in Kashmir are frequent with incoming mails, the outgoing ones aren’t exempt either.
Iqbal Hussain completed his Bachelor’s in Veterinary Sciences last year and had applied this year for Masters in “Animal breeding and Genetics” in a European University. The last date for receiving applications was November 18, but it reached the university on December 2.
“I worked hard to make it, when everything was done, the postal delay ruined it,” said Iqbal.
Iqbal had made several rounds of the post office to check the status of his application form.
Sometimes he was told that the “packet is in process” and at other times “it takes time to reach a foreign country.”
“I had kept in mind the time lag, that is the reason I sent it on 8th October, keeping all provisions, but still the delay occurred,” Iqbal told Kashmir Life.
When contacted, the senior postmaster of General Post Office, Srinagar said, “Let them come to us with a complaint, we will see to it. Get some concrete (case), verbal argument is of no avail.”
Danish Zargar, a student who missed his admission in Annamalai University in Chennai is not content with the postmaster’s reply, “This is mockery. Agreed we will again go to them, can he make our admission possible in the university,”
Besides the postal services run by the government, people are unhappy with the services of private courier services as well.
Many people complained that courier services frequently call up people asking them to collect their mails in Srinagar, rather than delivering them at the given addresses.
“I was told by the executive of company to receive the packet which my brother has sent me from outside, citing reason they couldn’t find my residence. I live in Karan Nagar which is the heart of city,” said Umar.
When complaints were brought in notice of a courier company, Blue Dart Express world, Red Cross road they hold the volatile situation responsible for the mess.
“Our delivery boys are assigned to particular routes, the situation as you know is sometimes so violent that they find it hard to deliver. Taking into consideration the need of customer, we call them to inform if there is any emergency, than they can pick it up from our office.”
Muzamil Ahmad, an IT professional said he was called by Akash Ganga couriers to collect a mail from their office as and the package did not carry full address.
“When I reached the office, I was surprised to see the package had full address, with street name and reference markers on it,” said Yasir.
Nuzhat, a resident of Buchpora had a more bitter experience.
She says two weeks back she got a call from First Flight Courier office, asking her to collect some mail from Mumbai. She insisted that they should deliver it at home.
“First they said the address wasn’t clear. I gave them full address with instructions, my home landline number, besides my cell number which they already had,” said Nuzhat.
After a week of wait, when nobody turned up at her home, she called up the office again, only to hear a shocking reply.
“We couldn’t find your address so we returned the mail,” she was told.
When contacted, the local office of First Flight, told Kashmir Life that they return packages when they are unable to find addresses.
The courier executive refused to answer further queries and snapped the phone.
Nuzhat has no idea about the contents or the sender of the mail, as it was the courier office which told him about it, and then returned it without informing her.
But according to the courier executive who did not give his name, receiver should have consignment numbers “intimated by the sender to track the status”.
Speed and reliability associated with courier business, seems to be alien words when it comes to Kashmir.
“The courier companies charge for speedy delivery and do it at snail’s pace,” said Imtiyaz Ahmad of Hawal.
Imtiyaz sent his degree certificates through Trackon Courier to Mumbai for attestation in the Embassy as he had plans of going to Saudi Arabia. The certificates supposed to reach in 48 hours took 10 days to reach Mumbai.
“I literally begged them and then only my certificates reached the Embassy,” said Imtiyaz.
