At an age when people easily choose WhatsApp, Instagram for instant communication, a bunch of villages in East Burdwan have joined hands to raise funds for overhauling of a fragile 142-year-old post office structure here.

As the government funds ceased to flow for the dilapidated post office, the local residents of half a dozen villages there chose to come forward to help erect a new concrete structure for the communication office that also functions as their lone banking office, currently.

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As stated by Lakshman Chandra Khan, officer at the regional office of the postal services in Burdwan, “We couldn’t arrange funds to help refurbishment of the branch post office and it was about to fall down. Our staff and even the local residents were frightened to enter. Then the residents of the adjoining villages came forward and raised funds for erecting this concrete building. This reveals their encouraging passion for a post office even in this modern age.”

The marooned Chhotobainan post office in Madhabdihi block of East Burdwan was operating on an age-old wretched structure standing on mud walls since 1882, which, according to the officials and the residents, had become a haunted house.

In December 2022, the ministry of communications implemented ‘Information Technology Modernization Project’ for digitization of the postal services in which 25,099 post offices across the country have been linked with a dedicated computerized WAN (wide area network). Besides, the department also has modernized 1,29,854 branch post offices in rural India. In Bengal, till 2022-23 year, 7,249 branch post offices, as the ministry claimed, were modernized.

Yuba Gosthi, an assembly of local villages like Mituni, Khanhar, Momrezpur including Chhotobainan started collecting donations from individuals for the purpose. The fund raisers, Krishnasadhan Chakraborty, Ramshankar Batabyal and their mentor Sisir Debnath, a retired headmaster of a local school, said, “We couldn’t see absolute cessation of the services and the government also denied any fund. So, we took the charge and after the masons gave an estimate, we somehow managed to collect the required sum of Rs 4.50 lakh for a new concrete room for our post office.”

With the gathered fund, a single room, measuring 800 square feet, was erected and started functioning yesterday. The postal officers said, “The branch has nearly 2,000 accounts now and this remains as the lone resort of banking services for them.” The postal department now requires at least 2,500 accounts to help continuation of services. Debnath added, “We’ve started a new struggle to help by adding at least 500 new accounts for its sustenance.”