Gifts and parcels sent by those abroad to their near and dear ones in Kerala through the India Post during the first week of August have not been delivered so far.
The office of the Kochi Foreign Post (KFP) confirms this and says large numbers of parcels to be distributed all over the State are pending.
Over 1,500 parcels
At the KFB office itself, more than 1,500 parcels that arrived early August are pending.
Because of space constraints, the parcels that arrived later are kept in the storage area of the Ernakulam Railway Mail Service. Most of the parcels lying at the RMS are Onam gifts sent to relatives.
A spokesman at the office says that shortage of Customs clearance personnel is the reason for it.
All parcels have to be cleared by the Customs personnel and then despatched from the KFP to the respective post offices.
Just one officer
- But the postal apprising wing of the Customs has deputed only one officer for the job.
- The KFP spokesman says that about 40 parcels arrive at the KFP every day.
- But during August, more than 200 parcels landed most of the days.
- Most of the parcels are big and examining each with the scanner is a time-consuming process.
- In the wake of the spurt in gold smuggling, the examination has to be meticulous.
- The arrivals in August were too big for the lone officer.
- No response
- Though the Department of Posts requested the Kochi Customs to depute more personnel to the KFB, there has been no response so far.
When complaints began to mount, a team of five officers were deputed to the KFB last Friday.
The KFB spokesman says that following this, the clearance and despatch have started to pick up and it is expected that the backlog could be cleared by the weekend.
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