It is short form of Demi Official
Letter. It is written by the Ministers and senior officers of the State or
Central Government to other officers, who are either one rank below or above
them. In case, the addressee is a senior officer, he will be addressed as Sir,
otherwise his first name like ‘My Dear Rajesh’ will be mentioned in the
beginning. It is written as a reminder after numerous official letters (Letter
or Official Memorandum) fail to get a work expedited. It is also written to
Members of Parliament, Ministers, Members of State Legislatures for furnishing
the information asked by them. D.O. letters end with ‘My best regards’, ‘Happy
New Year / Diwali’ etc. While in the official letters, the writing officers
write as ‘Yours Faithfully’, the D.O. letter ends with ‘Yours Sincerely’. It
has got a personal touch to the official work. Both the addressees - senior or
junior, and ‘with regards’ at the conclusion of letter will be written in his
own handwriting by the officer signing it. I remember a Joint Secretary in the
Ministry of Human Resource Development writing to his wife, who was also a
Joint Secretary in other Ministry of the Government of India addressing his
wife as ‘My Dear XXXXX’.
Besides the above major differences,
while the official letters may be fully typed on plain paper, D.O. letters are
typed on a special letter head called D.O. Pad in which the name and address of
the Ministry / Department is printed on top right corner and the emblem of
Government is embossed in Gold on the Right top corner. In official letters,
the name and address of the addressee is generally mentioned on top, in
D.O.Letter, the same is mentioned at the bottom on right side.
Drafting of a D.O. letter requires
skills and command of the language as the facts of the whole case are not mentioned
in this form of letter in chronological order. Still it required clarity on the
issued involved and brevity of sentences, so as not to leave any important
aspect of the matter as the purpose of writing a D.O. letter is that the
addressee, generally Minister/senior officers, should be apprised of the issues
involved without wasting their precious time.
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//copy// - SAPOST