Postal Manual Volume VII
CHAPTER - I - Miscellaneous Rules
➤ Departments of a set of a sorting mail office – Each set of a Sorting Mail Office for the purpose of distribution of work and responsibility is divided into the following departments: -
S.No. Name of Unit Designation of Official In Charge
1 Mail Department - Head Sorting Assistant
2 Sorting Department - Sorting Assistant
3 Registration Department -- Registration Sorting Assistant
4 Parcel Department - Parcel Sorting Assistant
➤ In sets where the number of Sorting Assistants employed is less than the number of departments, the work is distributed according to the establishment sanctioned, the duties appertaining to two or more departments being assigned to one Sorting Assistant.
➤ Where a separate parcel Sorting Assistant is not employed, the duties of parcel department are assigned to the registration Sorting Assistant and in sets consisting of only two Sorting Assistants, the Head Sorting Assistant performs, in addition to his own work, all the duties of the sorting department and the Sorting Assistant, the duties of the registration and parcel departments.
➤ In sets in charge of a selection grade Head Sorting Assistant, the duties of the mail department connected with receipt and dispatch of mails and opening and closing of mail bags will be assigned to a senior Sorting Assistant or Sorting Assistant who will be designated as mail Sorting Assistant.
➤ Posting of prepaid unregistered articles in mail offices. – The posting of unregistered articles (i.e. letters, postcards and packets) in train letter-boxes at any time during the day or night and in the letter boxes attached to RMS offices during the time prescribed for late fee collection in respect of each mail carrying train is subject to the prepayment of late fee prescribed in addition to the postage due.
➤ No article should be received by hand by RMS section
➤ Mentions of sections in official correspondence – In order to avoid confusion, whenever a section is mentioned in official correspondence, the beat of the section must always be added, within brackets, after designation,
➤ In case where the beat of two or more sections is the same, the Railway designation of the train by which the section mentioned works should further be added when the section is referred to for the first time.
➤ Interception or redirection of articles. – Except on the authority of the Director- General or the Head of the Circle, a mail office may not redirect any article or intercept or deliver any article to the addressee.
➤ Information not to be made public. - No person not belonging to the Department may be permitted to examine any article passing through the post, even though the articles may have been posted by him nor any information respecting such an article be given to any one not belonging to the Department.
➤ Date on stamps and seals. – The date shown by the date stamps and seals of a set of section or mail office should be that of the day on which the working hours of the set begin.
➤ Interruptions to mail movement – Interruptions of the mail service due to breaches on the Railway, floods, accidents or any other cause, should be reported by the Head Sorting Assistant of the set on duty to the Superintendent, the Inspector and the Record Office to which the set is attached. If the detention to mails due to breaches or accidents is likely to exceed 6 hours, it should be reported at once by fax/telegraph to the Superintendent and the Record Office. In cases of detentions of less than this period, a report by fax/telegraph should be sent only to the Record Office.
➤ Extra reserved accommodation in trains – Wherever, from any cause, the regular accommodation provided in a train is inadequate for the carriage of all mails that have to be forwarded by it, the Mail Agent/Mail Guard in charge of a transit section may apply to the Railway authorities for such extra accommodation as may be necessary for the exclusive use of the Post Offices.
➤ At stations where a Record Officer or Mail Agent is available, the request for extra accommodation after satisfying himself that such accommodation is actually necessary, will be made by the Record Officer or the Mail Agent, as the case may be.
➤ When extra accommodation is required under this rule, a requisition in the prescribed form should be prepared in four parts by the Record Officer or Head Sorting Assistant; the first part of ball point/pencil copy should be handed to the Station Master of the station from which the extra accommodation is reserved, the second part should be delivered up at the station to which the extra accommodation is reserved, and one part of carbon copy should be sent to the Superintendent attached to the daily report and the remaining part should be retained by the Record Officer or mail Agent/Mail Guard for record.
➤ The Superintendent should, on the 10th of each month, compile and submit to the Head of the Circle a return in the prescribed form showing particulars of the extra accommodation used on each Railway during the preceding month the number of bags conveyed in the extra accommodation in each case, and explaining the necessity for the extra accommodation.
➤ Misconnection of mail buses, trains and air services. – The misconnection of mail-carrying buses, trains and air service at junction stations and at airports should invariably be reported to the Superintendent as early as possible by Record Offices established at those places, stations and airports in accordance with instructions embodied in the “ Telegraphic Message Code” or by fax. The misconnection between air services should also invariably be reported by Record Officers to the Head of the Circle by first post.
➤ The Mail offices, or Post Offices which open and dispose of misconnected mails should intimate the disposal of the mails immediately to the Record Offices of the sections or Mail Offices and to the Post Office by which such mails are due to be received. Intimation of the disposal of such mails should also be sent to the Record Offices of the sections and Mail offices, and the Post Offices which closed the bags.
➤ Circulars of Heads of Circles : Orders issued by Heads of Circles for the general information and guidance of RMS officials are published in their Monthly Circulars which bear headings and a consecutive annual series of numbers.
➤ These circulars are issued and forwarded to all Supervising Officers and Record Officers and should be filed in Guard Books, care being taken to correct or cancel previous circulars, when necessary, on receipt of subsequent ones.
➤ All circulars issued by Heads of Circles should be destroyed after three years, counted from the month of April following the close of the official year in which they were issued. circulars, Heads of Circles will either incorporate them in the circle orders or reproduce them in a new circular before the previous circular is due to be destroyed.
➤ Receipts to be taken in hand to hand exchanges. – In addition to the rules laid down elsewhere prescribing the transfer of bags or articles from one section or mail office to another or from one set to another, it is here laid down as a general rule, that whenever registered and parcel articles have to be transferred loose, they should be enclosed in a registered or parcel bag, for which receipt should be taken in the registered or parcel abstract of the relieved set. Where the number of such articles is small and the time at the disposal of the relieving set will admit of their being counted, they should be made over loose, but under receipt on the duplicate copy of the registered or parcel list.
➤ In all such cases, the bag from one Set of Mail Office to another will be indicated in the accompanying mail list as ‘L’ bag, separate acquittance having been obtained for Registered/Parcel bags/articles. The Due Mail List will in such cases show exchange of ‘L’ ‘R’ and ‘P’ bags instead of ‘D’ or ‘S’ bag.
➤ Knowledge of Sorting List and “List of Indian Post Offices: It is essentially necessary that every Sorting Assistant should commit the sorting list for memory. He should be able to readily repeat or write down from memory the particulars of the due mails received and delivered at each receipt and dispatch.
➤ Every Sorting Assistant should be conversant with the List of Indian Post Offices which will be useful in sorting.
➤ The Superintendent, Inspector or Record Officer may order a Sorting Assistant to attend the Record Office for practice sorting during his rest-time.
➤ Supply of sorting list to Sorting Assistants – Every Sorting Assistant in RMS will be supplied with a copy of the sorting list of the Mail Office It will be the duty and responsibility of each Sorting Assistant to keep his personal copy of the sorting list corrected up to date and the Record Officer will see that this important item of wo rk is attended to during Record Office attendance.
➤ It will be the duty of the Record Officer to see that sorting lists are returned by the officials when asked for and that if the sorting list is lost, a sum of Rupee one is recovered from the official as a nominal cost of the sorting list, before a new copy is supplied.
➤ Metal Tokens : A metal token of authorized type must be carried by all RMS officials, other than Supervising Officers.
➤ The tokens are the property of Government and are supplied from the stock depot to the Head Record Office. The Head Record officer issues tokens to the officials attached to his office and supplies them to record and Sub Record Officers, for issue by them to the officials attached to their respective offices. They each hear the name of the Division and a serial number and are treated as part of the stock of Record offices.
➤ If the holder loses his metal token, he must immediately report the fact to the Record Officer who will issue a new token to him and submit a report to the Superintendent. The holder will also have to make good the dues as prescribed by the Department. The usual formalities should be followed before effective recovery of the amount.
➤ Mail carriers attached to Post Offices are supplied with metal tokens of the authorized type when such officials travel on duty with mails in a vehicle or compartment reserved for the Post Office. The metal token should be of that Railway Mail Service Division which covers the post office concerned. The Postmaster of the Post Office to which the mail carrier is attached will perform the functions of the local Record Officer, and the Superintendent of Post Offices will exercise the functions of the Superintendent, Railway Mail Service.
➤ Relaxation of work on Sundays and PO Holidays – Record Offices may be entirely closed.
➤ In the Mail Offices – Except the sale of postage stamps, postal stationery (and booking of registered articles during the period for each mail office on payment of usual late fee), no business will be done with the public.
➤ Memorandum of distribution of work – The memorandum of distribution of work is issued by the Superintendent when more than one official work in an office or a section. It specifies the duties to be performed by each official, the attendance hours of sets, and in the case of a section which work by a train starting from the Station, also the hour at which the set should be present at the station.
➤ In the case of Record Office, the memorandum should specify the hours during which the record officer must be present in the office, the work he is to do in the office, the trains he is required to attend and the work to be done by him on the platform The Record Officer will initially prepare the memorandum of distribution of work, and forward it to the Superintendent.
➤ In the case of a sorting mail office, the memorandum should show in detail for each sorting Assistant the bags the contents of which should be examined and packed by him. The Inspector will initially prepare the memorandum of distribution of work of the mail office or section and forward it to the Superintendent.
➤ In the case of a section, the memorandum will show proper arrangements of bags in the van. The arrangements should be such as to secure an even distribution of the bulk of weight over the surface of the van, in order that the strain may not rest on any particular portion or portions of the vehicle. Copies of memorandum will be furnished by the Superintendent to the Record Office, Mail Office or Section, and Inspector concerned.
➤ The Superintendent may, if he considers it necessary, issue a memorandum of duties to be performed by the official in single handed offices and sections.
➤ Disposal Records – The following records should be torn and sold as waste paper on the expiration of the period of preservation noted against each. Class of Record Period of Preservation
i) Correspondence relating to robberies, thefts, etc. (Inland Post) - One year after the cases are closed 3 years
ii) Invoices of articles received from the Stock Depot - 3 years
iii) Carbon copies, invoices of articles returned to the Stock Depot - 3 years.
iv) Order Book of a mail office and a section- 3 years.
v) Correspondence relating to personal files (appointments, nominations, leave, pensions, punishments). - 3 years.
vi) Work papers of RMS offices and sections- 18 months
vii) Correspondence relating to the disposal of registered articles (both letters and parcels) - 18 months
viii) Other records of a record or sub record office with the exception of those mentioned in the following paragraph, and account records detailed in the Posts and Telegraphs Financial Hand Book, Vol I. - 18 months
ix) Arrangement Register, Attendance Register & Daily report -18 months
➤ Order book of a Record -Office. Nominal roll of token -holders, Work papers, correspondence, or documents regarding which enquiry are in progress, or these connected with cases which have not been fully decided or closed, records may not be destroyed without the special permission of the Head of the Circle.
➤ When the records mentioned above are to be destroyed, the destruction should be affected in the Record Officer’s presence by tearing them into pieces in such a manner that they cannot be used again. They should then be sold as waste paper.
➤ Gradation lists should be destroyed three years after new ones have been issued and registers of sanctioned establishment should be destroyed at the end of the year after new ones have been supplied or prepared.
➤ In addition, to the correspondence referred to in Paragraph (1), the Head of the Circle may order the preservation of any other classes of correspondence for a period longer than that prescribed above.
➤ Postage stamps and stationery for sale – Every mail office is provided with a stock of postage stamps and stationery (including embossed envelopes, inland letter cards and postcards) for sale to the public; and the Head Sorting Assistant or, in the case of a transit Mail Office, the Mail Agent or Mail Guard is responsible that a sufficient stock of postage stamps of all kinds in demand is maintained in the office.
➤ The amount to be held in postage stamps/stationery (including embossed envelopes, inland letters and postcards) by each mail office is fixed by the superintendent, and stamps to that amount will, in the first instance, be supplied to the Record Office, on application, by the nearest Head Post Office. When the first supply of stamps is received from the Head Office, the Record Officer should grant a receipt for the value of the stamps; this receipt should be forwarded to the Superintendent, RMS for counter-signature and transmission thereafter to the Head Post Office.
➤ Postage stamps are to be kept in the office safe; but in order to save them from damage, they should first be put in the stamps case supplied to every mail office and the case should be kept inside the safe. The inner box, marked “Daily Stock” is intended for the stamps, etc. required for a day’s or half- a- day’s sales, and the outer box marked “Reserve Stock”, for the remainder of the supply held by the office.
➤ Custody of Government Money – Government money and all other articles and documents which are required by the rules to be kept in the office safe, should be locked up in the cash safe or cash chest supplied to the office. For this purpose, each Head Record Office will be supplied with an office safe. Each Record or Sub-Record Office will be supplied with either, a cash safe or a cash chest at the discretion of the Head of the Circle. No private money, property belonging to any person may be kept in the safe or chest.
➤ In Head Record Office, one key of the safe will be retained in the custody of the Head Record Officer and other in that of the Accountant.
➤ In Record and Sub Record offices with one or more Sorting Assistant in addition to the Record Officer or Sub - Record Officer, the key of one of the locks should be retained by the Record Officer or the Sub - Record officer and that of the other by the Sorting Assistant nominated by the SRM as the joint custodian.
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