The postmen will now deliver prasad from the Maa Chinnamastika Temple In Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district at the doorstep of interested devotees.

The service known as Maa Chinnamastika Prasadam Seva was launched, following a tie-up between the postal authorities and the Maa Chinnamastika Nyas Samiti, on Wednesday in Ranchi in the presence of S. Mervin Alexander, member (personnel) of Indian postal board.

The interested devotees can get the prasad by sending money order to the sub-postmaster of Gola in Ramgarh district, the postal officials informed, adding the same would be available in two types of packets.

A 200-gram packet containing a photo of the deity, peda, chura and other items like bel patra would be available for Rs 251 while a 500-gram packet would cost Rs 501.

This is, however, not the first prasad delivery service for India Post that had already introduced identical service for prasadam from 57 other well-known shrines of the country, including the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala for which the Kerala postal circle tied up with the Kerala Devaswom Board for introducing it.

Any interested devotee living in any corner of the country can get a packet of prasadam from Sabarimala by booking it at a post office for Rs 450.

“Even in Jharkhand, the same service had been introduced at Baba Baidyanathdham Temple in Deoghar in June this year,” informed one of the postal officials.

India Post started delivering other items during the lockdown last year.

When the farmers in Karnataka were wondering how to sell their mangoes during the lockdown last year, India Post came to their rescue. It teamed up with the Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation and started delivering mangoes to willing buyers every Tuesday and Friday in April last year. This was followed by a similar service in Surat for delivering Alfonso mangoes and also Shahi Lichi and Zardalu mangoes in Bihar the next month.

As the number of letters dwindled, the postal department tried to reinvent itself by diversifying its activities across the country.

Its Jharkhand circle had also opened a few shops in cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur, Daltonganj and Deoghar that started selling, besides pure and unadulterated gangajal packaged in Gangotri and Rishikesh, various items like khadi and ayurveda products and greetings cards.