NEW DELHI: The communications and IT ministry is set to a launch a
slew of schemes on December 28 that will seek to digitally connect rural
post offices across the country and enable core banking facilities at
12,000 other post offices.
The ministry will also announce a programme to set up over 1,000 ATMs
in three months for the convenience of post office savings bank
customers.
Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will launch the schemes to mark the 'Good Governance Day'.
The ambitious project to digitise all transactions made by postmen in
rural India will include equipping branch postmasters with solar
powered, biometric hand-held devices.
It will be launched at three pilot circles in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar
and Rajasthan. A senior government official told ET that the Good
Governance Day will hence be a critical date for the government to
measure its success in digitising governance and for setting new
digitisation goals. The official said the government's attempt to mark
the day on December 25 last year had become controversial and it was
thus decided to shift it to December 28. "By March 2017, 1.30 lakh
hand-held devices will be made available across rural branch offices.
This instrument will revolutionise lives of people across villages," the
official said.
Booking and delivery of Speed Post, registered mail, money orders,
sale of stamps and postal stationary will be done through these devices
and paper receipts will be generated instantaneously, the official said.
"All financial transactions shall also be reconciled immediately and
cash on delivery amount collected in the village will be immediately
credited to the account of e-commerce company," the official said.
These devices will also facilitate biometric authentication of social
security beneficiaries at the time of pay-out, "reducing leakage in the
scheme", the official said.
The postal department has clocked revenue of Rs 980 crore in 2015
through cash on delivery and the figure is likely to cross Rs 1,500
crore by the end of the current financial year, the official said. The
postal department has also set up 57 integrated state-ofthe-art parcel
centres for booking, processing and delivery of ecommerce parcels.
The official said the postal department has this year offered more
than 57,000 policies under the PM Suraksha Bima Yojana, PM Jeevan Jyoti
Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana to post office savings bank account
holders.
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