Mail sorting houses coming up outstation

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

The Postal Services Ministry has decided to decentralize and accelerate the sorting of mail by setting up sorting houses in several outstations, said Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga.

Mail is sorted only in Colombo at the Central Mail Exchange Centre, Colombo at present.

Two mail sorting centres will be established in Kandy and at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake at the initial stage.

Mail sorting centres will be established in Anuradhapura and Matara under the second stage.

The Katunayake mail sorting centre will be used to sort airmail letters and parcels while the other centres will be used to sort mail from the area where the particular sorting centre is established. Meanwhile, it has been reported that public funds are being used for overtime payments for mail sorting staffers at the Colombo Central Mail Exchange centre.

According to Postal Ministry sources, a mail sorting officer gets a huge amount which is equal to his basic salary as overtime payment monthly.

Altogether, an average mail sorting officer receives a monthly salary of over Rs 50,000. It is said that around 250 mail sorting officers are on duty at a time. The sources added that the cardre has not been amended for decades even though the amount of mail has reduced to two million daily from 20 million in the 1970 decade. Eventhough, there is an excess of mail sorters, a considerable amount has to be allocated for overtime payments. Unnecessary overtime payments are a major burden on the Postal Department which is running at a annual loss of Rs 2,360 million, the sources added.