A postman from Odisha was recently fired for dumping close to 6,000 letters in an abandoned building over the period of 10 years, The Sun reported.
Jagannath Puhan was busted after a group of children found a pile of mail in an abandoned school building.
Puhan, who joined the Odhanga post office in 1979, had been postmaster since 2004. For most of his time on the job, his duties were to deliver the mail on a cycle in a three-kilometer radius around the post office.
He only delivered mail he knew records had to be maintained and chucked out the rest. Acceptance letters from jobs and universities, official notices and even letter to the local MP was some of the mail that he chose not to deliver, the Indian Express reported.
"We have managed to salvage over 1500 letters in two days," postal superintendent Sarbeswar Mishra is quoted as saying by The Sun.
Adding, "But more than half of 6,000 letters that Puhan did not deliver have either turned soggy or eaten by termites and cannot be delivered at all."
According to the Hindustan Times, Puhan blamed his negligence on health issues and claimed the he has trouble walking.
