This has reference to various communication received from the customers and some circles regarding mandatory capturing of mobile number of sender and addressee at the time of booking of accountable bulk/retail mail.

The end user to capture the mobile number of sender and addressee. However, it is not mandatory. Consequently, the percentage of articles booked at counters which have the data entered is very low. The non- availability of the mobile number of sender and addressee in the system hampers the effectiveness of the functionality to send SMS alerts for different stages from booking to delivery.

2. In the existing Point of Sale application, there are tie lds which enable

2.1 Mandatory capturing of mobile number of sender and addressee will provide the following benefits:

a) Customer will get the instant messages during various stages from booking to delivery.

b) Customer may instantly react to any wrong routing of his article during transmission, fake remarks such as door locked, addressee absent etc. given by the delivery staff.

c) It will allow the postman to reach out to the addressee in case of incomplete, incorrect or illegible addressee details mentioned on the article.

3. Based upon the discussion held with all stake holders and examining the law in force in this regard it has been decided by the competent authority that:

(i) Mandatory capturing of mobile number of sender and addressee at the time of booking of bulk/retail articles will be included in next point of sale version 4.9 expected to be release in last week of September 2023

(ii) Capturing of mobile number at the time of booking will be started immediately after launch of next version of point of sale application

4.1 Exceptions are provided for the following situations:

a) Addressee mobile number in case of International Articles

b) Addressee mobile number in case of articles addressed to the offices of Central/State Govt. offices, Banks, Semi Government Organizations, Central/State Govt. PSUs (Central Govt/State Govt), all educational boards, Central Vigilance Commission, All Courts, organizations, institutions, firms etc.,

c) sender mobile number when article is being booked by Central/State Govt. offices, Banks, Semi Government Organizations, Central/State Govt. PSUs (Central Govt/State Govt), all educational boards, Central Vigilance Commission, All Courts, organizations, institutions, firms etc.,

d) Sender mobile number in case of articles address to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) under Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informer (PIDPI) will also be optional.

e) When a customer refuses to provide his/her mobile number, they should be briefed about the benefits of the same. However, if they insist, booking would proceed without capturing the mobile number.

4.2 In the scenarios of the exceptions detailed above, “1234567890” will be entered in the system as dummy mobile number at the time of booking of accountable mail. The usage of the same will be monitored centrally.

5. An external and internal campaign should be organized in each Circle to sensitize the Bulk Customers, retail customers and counter PAs about the benefits of providing and capturing mobile numbers at the time of booking