THE decision to merge some Post Offices came as a surprise to many members of the public and also some postal employees.
I will try to confine my comments and criticism to the decision to close the Aurora Post office. This office has served not only residents within that district, that is about 18 miles, but also people living in the Supenaam Creek as far as Bethany Mission, a distance of about 12 miles from Supenaam. The Aurora Post Office has been providing prompt and reliable service to thousands of people living in and out of the district for more than 80 years, although communication has to a great extent changed rapidly over the last decade. The post offices in Guyana and to be more specific the Aurora post office still remains very important to the thousands of people who utilise its services on a regular basis.
If this proposed action is carried out to merge Aurora Post Office with Suddie Post Office which is about seven miles away, more than 500 pensioners and persons who receive public assistance will be forced to travel distances between five and about 25 miles to where the other post office is located and some of these pensioners are not that mobile.
Then there are those who depend on this facility to pay the various utility bills: light, water, telephone, not forgetting money transfer and last but certainly not least the traditional postal services.
While I would admit that the post office, or I should say some of the post offices cannot or do not offer the speedy services you get at Bill Express or other agencies where bills can be paid, it does not mean that the residents in that community must be made to suffer.
The onus is certainly on the Board of the Post Office Corporation to improve the system.
I agree that the corporation should be able to sustain itself, but if at present that is not happening the state must subsidise or bear the deficit.