A bill to replace the 1898 Act on post offices is passed by the Lok Sabha
A bill to replace the 1898 Act on post offices is passed by the Lok Sabha.
The opposition MPs claimed the Bill would remove India Post from liability in the event that its services are subpar and would enable the government to arbitrarily intercept, open, or detain any item. The administration claimed the Bill will revolutionize the country’s postal system.
The opposition protested the security lapse in the House last Wednesday, and on Monday the Lok Sabha enacted the Post Office Bill, 2023. The 125-year-old Indian Post Office Act of 1898 is replaced by the Bill. The government claims that it will “transform” India’s postal system, but opposition members are worried that it will give the government the power to arbitrarily intercept, open, or hold any package and absolve India Post of responsibility in the event that its services are subpar.
The 170-year-old department in question is not your typical department. It serves as a bridge to the past. It connects us to our magnificent culture. The days of the postman delivering just mail are long gone. Every household back then included the postman as a member. Similar to this, our government now offers citizen-centric services to every hamlet, every home, and every individual through 1.64 lakh post offices. While defending the Bill in the Lok Sabha, Devusinh Chauhan, the minister of state for communications, stated, “Our department is providing 90+ citizen-centric services to the people.”
The most disputable arrangement of the Bill, Segment 9, permits the Middle to enable any postal official, through a notice, to “block, open or keep any thing” in light of a legitimate concern for state security, well disposed relations with unfamiliar states, public request, crisis, public security, or negation of different regulations. This arrangement additionally permits present officials close by over postal things to customs specialists assuming they are associated with containing any denied things, or things that are dependent upon customs obligations.
Area 10 of the Demonstration, one more objective of sharp analysis from the Resistance, absolves the Mail center and its officials from risk, except if the official has acted “falsely or wilfully caused misfortune, deferral or mis-conveyance of administration”.
These arrangements compare to areas 19, 25 and 26 of the 1898 Demonstration, which likewise put limitations on the idea of articles that could be shipped through the Indian Post. Resistance MPs have called attention to, nonetheless, that the pioneer time Bill had been fundamentally more unambiguous about the measures and conditions under which post could be captured. Dissimilar to the 2023 Bil, it likewise determined the punishment — detainment of as long as two years or a fine — for postal officials illicitly capturing postal articles or in any case completing wrongdoing, misrepresentation or burglary while participated in their obligations.
On December 13, senior Congress pioneer Shashi Tharoor said that the bill had held the most “draconian” arrangements of the 1898 Bill and would additionally abuse Indian residents’ established right to the right to speak freely of discourse and articulation and to security in an “Orwellian” way.
Serve Chauhan countered today that in 1986, the Congress legislature of the time had looked to bring exactly the same Revision. Segments 9 and 10 of the Bill were fundamental for “public wellbeing” and “public interest”, he said.
YSRCP MP B. V. Sathyavathi said that these arrangements would be a “unique advantage as far as countering illegal carrying and unapproved transportation of medications and booty items through the postal administrations.”
The Bill likewise engages the chief general of Postal Administrations to make rules in regards to expenses for Mailing station administrations.
The Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 4 and taken up in the Lok Sabha on December 13. Be that as it may, banter on the Bill was over and again hindered by the Resistance’s fights in regards to the December 13 security break in the Lok Sabha.
