Daylight robbery by the Dept. of Posts

Hindu Voice

210 ABHINAV,  Teen Dongri, Yashwant Nagar,

Goregaon West, MUMBAI 400062

Tel: 022-28764418, 28764460, 09324728153

Email: hinduvoicemumbai@gmail.com

26th May 2015

To:
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad
Union Minister for Communication & IT
Dak Bhavan
NEW DELHI 110016

Dear Sir,

Sub: Daylight robbery by the Dept. of Posts

I am compelled to write to you after I failed to get a favourable response from the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101 and the Asstt. Director Postal Services (RIC), Mumbai Region, Mumbai 400001.

Hindu Voice (English Monthly) is a registered newspaper, published from Mumbai, since April 2002, espousing the cause of Nationalism and Hindutva. It is also registered with the Dept. of Posts, No. MNW/43/2015-2017.

The Head Sorting Assistant, Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai 40001, vide his letter no. ER-3 dated 6th January 2015, had noticed that the date of publication is not printed on the last cover page of the January 2015 issue, and therefore demanded the deficiency amount of Rs.3.00 per article.
We had pointed out the letter No. Tech/47/R/2010 dated 29th Nov. 2013 of the ADPS (Technical & Bldg), where he has mentioned that notice is to be issued to the Regd. Newspaper at the first instance and if the error is repeated, then penalty should be imposed. Since we had not ‘repeated’ the error (we started mentioning the ‘date of publication’ from our Feb. 2015 issue) his demand for deficiency amount is inappropriate.

Neither the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101 nor the Asstt. Director Postal Services (RIC), Mumbai Region, Mumbai 400001, listened to us. In fact, Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101, had given instruction to the Goregaon East PO, Mumbai 400063, not to accept further posts from Hindu Voice till the amount, being deficiency for the month of Jan. 2015, is paid by us. We had to make a payment of Rs.6,000/-, under duress, vide receipt No.A2789 dated 2nd February 2015.

Now the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101, is giving retrospective effect to the matter and was demanding deficiency amount for November and December 2014 issues also. When we informed him that we did not post November and December 2014 issues, he is now claiming that leakage of revenue was noticed during June 2014 and October 2014 issues also, and hence we have to pay for these months also. He has in fact again instructed Goregaon East PO not to accept our articles under the licence granted to us. If this is not day light robbery, what it is?

Post Offices do hand over a set of rules to be followed by publishers, running into nearly 19 pages, from which we have to mention just 3 or 4 lines on the cover. What these 3 or 4 lines are, no one says. It is left to the publishers to learn by trial and error. During our 13 years of publishing our magazine, we have posted copies at Goregaon East PO (Mumbai 400063), GPO (400001), Kharodi PO (400095), etc. Every time, a few copies are handed over to the staff too. No one has pointed out this mistake during the last 13 years. Even the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101, who has been issuing us licence after verifying all the details, has not pointed out this mistake. To get up one fine morning from their deep slumber and levy this fine on a small publishers like us is audacious.

By levying this fine, the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101, is trying to strangle the Freedom of the Press.

Kindly note that we have not earned anything out of this mistake - not mentioning ‘printed on the first day of the month’. We do not lose anything by including these lines. There is no monetary loss also to the Dept. of Posts. Then why the fine at all, when the error has been corrected after your pointing it out?

We therefore request you:

1. To instruct the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101 and the Asstt. Director Postal Services (RIC), Mumbai Region, Mumbai 400001, to withdraw his instructions to Goregaon East PO, Mumbai 400063, cancelling our licence.

2. To instruct the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101 to withdraw his claim for any further deficiency amount.

3. To instruct the Sr. Supdt. of POs, Mumbai North West Division, Kandivli West, Mumbai 400101 and the Asstt. Director Postal Services (RIC), Mumbai Region, Mumbai 400001, to refund to us the sum of Rs.6,000/- forcibly collected from us.

Thanking you,

Yours truly

In the Services of Bharat Mata

P. Deivamuthu

Editor & Publisher

Hindu Voice

(This letter was sent by email on 26th May 2015)