160-yr-old Telegram now history; Over 20,000 messages sent

Bangalore, July 15: People across India thronged to telegraph offices to experience the thrill of booking a telegram for one last time as the curtains came down on Sunday night on a 160-year-old service.

Some 20,000 telegrams were booked Sunday, of them 2,200 from Delhi followed by Kerala with 1,867, a source in the department said.

The last telegram was sent out to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi by Ashwani Mishra of DD News at around 11.30 p.m, wishing him "success and happiness in life" and hoping he would attain heights in life as other great men of the past.

At the time of its closure, the telegraph department had around 1,000 employees in 75 offices across the country. They all will be deployed in the broadband, landline and cellular divisions of state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) that operated the service. This will happen from next week, it is learnt.

People from all age groups, starting three-year-old toddlers to over 80-years-old, were seen happily writing messages for one last time in the BSNL office.

The service was open way beyond 9 pm at several places across the country. "We don't want to disappoint anyone today, so we are trying our best to stay back till late and take everybody's messages," said one of the employees in Bangalore, who cheerfully took the form and started counting the words.

Shalini Pradhan, an engineer in her late 20's, worte, "Dear Dad, I want to express how much I love you through something that's a part of our history now."

India owes its telegraph system to its erstwhile British rulers who brought it to the country in 1833 to establish a communication system between their capital Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Howrah. It was expanded across the country in 1853 and even after the arrival of the telephony system in India early in the 20th century, it was the principal means of communications across the vast landmass.

During 1982-83 there were some 45,000 telegraph offices across the country. The annual telegraph traffic during that period was 75.2 million, which has now fallen to 72,000, prompting BSNL to scrap the service as it felt it had lost its relevance in this age of cutting-edge technology.

BSNL has incurred losses of Rs.1,473.38 crore from 2006-07 till 2011-12. It also suffered a loss of Rs.65.42 crore during the first half of financial year 2012-13.

Highlights

• Around 20,000 telepgrams were sent on the last day (Sunday)
• Delhites outperfomed other places by topping the chart with 2,200 telegrams
• Kerala sent out 1,867 telegrams
• Bangalore sent about 1,500 telegrams
  
• Telegraph service employees will be absorbed in other departments of BSNL from next week

With inputs from IANS.

OneIndia News