Tuesday 27 April 2010

Andaman-Nicobar Postal Dn. created on 27th April 1971

Like any other Department in the country, Postal Department has two parts of history, that is pre-independence and post independence and accordingly the history of the development of postal activities here in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has also two parts.

During the British time there was only one post office for the entire group of Islands, and that Post Office was located along with some other departments in the Ross Island where the then rulers had their Headquarter, and remained there till the end of the Second World War. At the end of the War, the office of the Commissioner was shifted to the location where the Secretariat is situated now and along with it moved the Post Office also.

This Post Office was only a small Sub Post Office and it was under the Head Post Office of Pegu Division located on the north of Rangoon, one of the towns of the then Burma (now called Mayanmmar), and all the accounting and other activities including the staff were under the control of the Head Post office, Pegu. Naturally, the mails were also coming from Burma by ship via Rangoon. During those days ships used to come to Port Blair from Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai) also. And so the Sub Post Office of Port Blair also received mails from these three stations. Initially the frequency of ships was once in a month from Calcutta and Madras, and from Rangoon twice in a month. Besides the normal official mails other private mails were also received but the volume of private mails was very few because the population of the area was very small at that time.

When India achieved Independence from the British rule in 1947, Andaman and Nicobar Islands remained with India and so the Port Blair Post Office was severed from its connection with Pegu Division (Burma), and was placed under Barrackpore Head Post Office, West Bengal, with the mails now coming only from Calcutta and Madras. In the meantime two more Post Offices were opened one at Chatham and another at Long Island. Thus when the British finally left India in the year 1947 there were three Post Offices in these group of Islands.

Soon after Independence the Postal Administration of these Islands passed under the control of the Presidency Division, West Bengal with Head quarter at Barrackpore. Subsequently, the Presidency Division was bifurcated and administrative control was vested with South Presidency Division with Head quarter at Calcutta. With a view to cope up with the increasing demand from the administration as well as the settlers who had since resided in these Islands the first Postal Sub Dn. was created in May 1961. Even at present There is only one Postal Sub Division headed by Sub Divisional Inspector who is looking after the whole Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Steady growth in the Islands and increasing demands of Postal Services led to the creation of a full fledged Postal Division on 27th April 1971 bringing it at par with Postal facilities available in mainland.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands Postal Division was created on 27th April 1971 under the administrative control of Superintendent of Post Office in PSS Group ‘B’ Cadre. This Division has been placed under the administrative control of the Director Postal Services, Group ‘A’ Cadre (JAG) vide Postal Dte. memo. No. 31-1/87-PE.II dated. 5th May 1988. Accordingly, first Director Ms. Kalpana Tiwari took over the charge w.e.f 19th Sept.1988. At present Mr. Krishna Kumar Yadav (Indian Postal Service-2001 Batch) is working as 7 th Director of Postal Services in Andaman-Nicobar Islands Dn. since 22 th January, 2010.





It’s a matter of pride that today Andaman-Nicobar Postal Dn. Completed 39 years..Congts.!!


(In Picture : Counter Portion of Portblair HPO & Mr. KK Yadav, Director Postal Services, A & N Islands, Portblair)