On and from Monday July 15,2013 authorities will close the country's telegram service, once a fundamental part of the country's communication system, used for everything from taking care of official business to reporting deaths and marriages
Once the fastest means of communication for millions of people, the end of the humble telegram service left behind a string of happy and bitter memories for people across the country
Amul comments on stopping of telegram service
Started in 1850 on an experimental basis between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour, it was opened for use by the British East India Company the following year. In 1855, the service was made available to the public.
It was such an important mode of communication in those days that
revolutionaries fighting for the country's independence used to cut the
telegram lines to stop the British from communicating
Nudged out by technology --- SMS, emails, mobile phones -- the iconic service gradually faded into oblivion with less and less people taking recourse to it
A large people, many of them youngsters and first timers, turned up at telegraph centres which have almost been forgotten in recent years to send a message to their loved ones on the last day of the service on Sunday July 14,2013
At 5.p.m. on July 14, the booking counter was closed at the Tallakulam Central Telegraph Office which was the only place open in Madurai city on Sundays for sending telegrams. On the last day, 113 telegrams were booked in Madurai and most of the messages were about plea to continue this 162-year-old service.
P. Anandan, State Organising Secretary of BSNL Employees’ Union, and M. Saravanan, secretary, Madurai Bench High Court Advocates’ Association, have appealed to the BSNL and the Central government to reconsider the decision to stop the telegram service
Note
Nudged out by technology --- SMS, emails, mobile phones -- the iconic service gradually faded into oblivion with less and less people taking recourse to it
A large people, many of them youngsters and first timers, turned up at telegraph centres which have almost been forgotten in recent years to send a message to their loved ones on the last day of the service on Sunday July 14,2013
At 5.p.m. on July 14, the booking counter was closed at the Tallakulam Central Telegraph Office which was the only place open in Madurai city on Sundays for sending telegrams. On the last day, 113 telegrams were booked in Madurai and most of the messages were about plea to continue this 162-year-old service.
In fact, the last telegram booked in Madurai on Sunday
evening reflects the emotional mood as the country bid goodbye to the
service.
“Withdraw unilateral decision of BSNL to
close down telegram service from July 15,” said the message sent by a
telegraph employee to the Chairman and Managing Director of the BSNLP. Anandan, State Organising Secretary of BSNL Employees’ Union, and M. Saravanan, secretary, Madurai Bench High Court Advocates’ Association, have appealed to the BSNL and the Central government to reconsider the decision to stop the telegram service
Note
- 1851: 30-mile electric telegraph line constructed from Calcutta to suburb of Diamond Harbour by East India Company and is opened for official use
- 1853: Large-scale construction of telegraph lines begins
- 1854: Act passed to regulate establishment and management of telegraph
- 1855: Telegraph service thrown open to public use as "new method of rapid communication"
- 1857: Post of director general of Telegraph is created and Irishman Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke is appointed
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