Almost a fortnight, last day telegrams still on the way

Guess how many days it would take for the Indian telegraphy system which is a part of history now, to deliver a telegram to an address which is just a few meters away from the Telegraph Office? Well, it would take easily a fortnight or more.

With some of the last day telegram messages dispatched from the Central Telegraph Office in Mangalore not yet reaching the intended recipients even after almost a fortnight, the telegraph system failed to deliver its last service to the people.

The undelivered telegrams have made a few people still waiting for the last messages sent via telegraph from their dear ones. And with it, the telegraph which was once the fastest mode of communication, proved as the slowest mode of communication, even as it breathed its last on July 14.

Strangely, though the telegrams sent from far away places like Mangalore to Chennai and Bangalore to Mangalore have been delivered despite the delay, the telegrams sent to short distances have not yet been delivered.

Complaining about the delay, city based consultant Bhaskar Kiran told Deccan Herald that of the three telegrams he had sent on the last day, only one was delivered till now.

Of the two more pending telegrams, one was sent to his office address which is located just a few meters away from the BSNL office where the telegraph office existed.

“The excitement of receiving the last telegram is lost. I had waited in queue for three hours to book telegrams. It is unfortunate that the postal department has disrespected people’s sentiments while delivering the service,” he said.

Ruben Fernandes from Kulshekhar said he too has not received the telegram sent by his friend.

Philatelist Surya Addoor expressed disappointment for the telegram has not reached
recipients the way it should have been.

“The significance of telegraph is its speed. But the speed in which the telegrams were delivered on the last day, is not appreciable. In fact, the department can not cite the reason of too many telegrams as the reason for the delay in delivery, as the CTO received only 161 telegrams on the last day,” he said.

An officer from the BSNL who was in-charge of telegram service operations said, all the booked telegrams were dispatched on the next day. “We had taken the print out of the messages and sent them via normal post. I do not know why it has been delayed,” she said. The officer also offered this correspondent to resend the telegrams if ‘needed.’