Jaipur Philatelic Bureau– The Other Side

Special Report by Abhishek Jalan

The Jaipur Philatelic Bureau which was once the heart of Philatelists has started to show its darker side. The reshuffling of postal staffs which was done with good intentions has failed to reap even a single benefit. It looks like the shuffling takes place at every week or month. Whenever we go new staff is present without a single knowledge of philately. The simple philately terms are unknown to them. The department is playing a game of hide and seeks with the collectors as the staff whom you saw last week will appear after a few weeks and same game starts. The term philately indicates that we make new friends through this hobby of exchange. The collectors who appear from around the planet are at dismay as not a single item is found there of interests. The Postal Department promised that the My Stamp counter will remain open even after the Rajpex 2012 but it looks like they failed to count the number of sheets available. Whenever an enquiry is made regarding My Stamp, there are common replies that kindly come back after few days because the order of Rajpex is still not met and sheets are less. They do not deny the non availability of sheets but also do not take new orders regarding My Stamp. The common problems faced are

• The staff does not know how to cancel a First Day Cover as whenever a FDC is demanded, they reply that we do not know how a cancellation is done so kindly do it yourself.
• The supply is pending from October 2011 to till date and no satisfaction letter is received by any collectors till date regarding when the supply will reach. Will it reach or not?  as they are busy with shuffling game.
• The Department is willing to allow the Postage Stamps to Decompose but will not bring them to the Counter for sale. They are left at the mercy of the dealers to buy old stamps and miniature sheets.
• The  timing to visit the bureau is between 10:30 AM to 6:00 PM but the staff present there closes the bureau by 4:00 PM itself when reason was asked, they simply replied that they need time to go through accounts and have to submit the cash. They hardly entertain philatelists and most of the time no items of interests is found so what accounts they check and wash cash they submit we all can think of.
• No proper time is fixed and it can be seen closed as early as 5:30 PM. As the time is common and people come according to their time availability but it seems that new time table has to be scheduled according to the convenience of staff.
• Place Cancelled Postcards had a lot of irregularity in them as some had damaged stamps while some had black cancellation ink over them. If someone wishes to get them changed kindly take appointment with the counter staff as they are always busy with the accounts and have no time left to change the damaged items.
• The philately department is completely as chaos and who knows when good old time will return and swarms of philatelists will be seen in the Philatelic Bureau.
• The List of Stamps scheduled to release in 2012 is hanged on notice board but no proper detail is given about the whereabouts of the stamps. No proper date is mention. Our philatelists who are not using internet media does not have a clue about the proper release of stamps.

Few day’s ago some philatelists tried to take the advantage of staff’s little knowledge. As we know that the collectors are asked to cancel the FDC’s by themselves. They tried to cancel some of unissued FDC’s and staff allowed as they are ignorant with the rules and regulations of the Philatelic Material. Anyone can do such mischievous things and sell in higher amount.

Few days back a collector was seen arguing with the staff that a lot of money is spent on transportation and even then no satisfactory reply is given.