Over to the third umpire8230;

PUNE, May 21: Did you get your mail? Well, there is no doubt about the efficiency of the Internet courier where mail takes only a few sec...

PUNE, May 21: Did you get your mail? Well, there is no doubt about the efficiency of the Internet courier where mail takes only a few seconds to reach the farthest destination on earth. But in case of errant deliveries, the finger of suspicion is obviously on the department of postal services.

If you have not been receiving your mail on time, or the money order has lost its way to end up in wrong hands or the parcels come to you with the best of them missing8230;there is hope of mending the things now.

The department of postal services will now hold open public hearing in every region throughout the State every week in a bid to reach out to the consumers and solve their grievances.

As per the orders received from the Chief Post Master General, Maharashtra Circle, department officers at the regional level will now have to take out one hour from their busy schedule every week to redress the consumers8217; complaints.

For Pune region comprising four districts namely Pune, Satara, Solapur and Ahmednagar, the public hearing will be held on every Wednesday between 11 am and 12 noon at the office of the Post Master General. The first such hearing will be held on June 2.

So far all the complaints were dealt with by the regional consumer care centre of the department located at Market Yard. Now with the department extending its consumer support activity, the complaints will also be disposed during the public hearing.

8220;The main idea behind holding public hearing is the expeditious disposal of complaints lodged by the consumers against the postal department. No specific classification of the complaints has been done and all public complaints will be discussed during the public hearing,8221; said A V Pathak, assistant director of Postal Services, Pune region.

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Explaining the procedure for attending the public hearing Pathak, who will also be the presiding officer of the hearing said that the consumers who have lodged their complaint with the local post master in writing and have still not got a satisfactory reply can present their case in the hearing.

8220;For this the aggrieved consumer will have to bring the relevant documents like the copy of the written complaint made to the post master and receipts in case of registered letters or parcels,8221; said Pathak.

Citing some of the common complaints received by the department Pathak said, 8220;Mainly it is the late delivery of mail, missing of articles from the registered post and non-delivery of money order.8221;

Besides disposing the cases, the office of public hearing will also order punitive action against the concerned postal officials who are found guilty of negligence in any complaint.