Come July 15 and the use of Telegrams in India would be a history. India is among the last few countries of the world to phase out Telegrams, which once proved to be the backbone of official communications.
163 years ago, the first telegram in India was successfully transmitted over the 13 and a half miles between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour – on the banks of the Hooghly river – in 1850. It was devised independently by William O’Shaughnessy, a surgeon and inventor.
The last telegram Message on  would be sent using the same telegraph device, that was used by William O’Shaughnessy.
BSNL, which currently operates Telegram Services in India says that the number of daily messages has reduced to less than 5000 Messages from what was more than several hundred thousands before advent of Fax Machine.
The Business of Telegram was most dampened by the rise of Email and SMS on Mobile Phones. These days only Government uses Telegram Messages, which results into revenue worth Revenue worth Rs 75 Lakhs only resulting into losses over Rs 100 crores every year
Countries like United States has already stopped the use of Telegrams, while Some countries including Russia, Canada and Germany still use them on small scale.
However, this move by Indian Government has attracted sharp criticism of the opposition parties.  Main opposition party BJP, on Saturday,  slammed the Centre’s decision to discontinue the 160-year-old telegram service from July 15 saying that it was the first step at weakening the postal department and demanded that it be restored.
“Private courier agencies and top brass in the government machinery are trying to weaken the postal service. This is the first step towards that goal,” BJP National Executive Council member K Rajendran was quoted saying.