A postal circle co-terminus with Telangana State was inaugurated by Union Minister of Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu here on Monday.
It is the 23rd circle in the country. It will on an average disburse social security pensions to 17.7 lakh persons. The postal service will also offer services, including bill collections and sale of non judicial stamp papers. The Telangana circle will have 423 urban and 433 rural post offices. It will also have 159 urban and 5,758 rural branch offices. The number of departmental staff in Telangana cirlce will be 6,532 and 8,754 grameen dak sevaks.
The department aims at establishing core banking solutions across the network of all post offices in the country, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Communications and Minister of State for Railway Manoj Sinha said speaking at the inaugural. India Post has been doing well in terms of saving accounts and also communication dissemination, he said. Especially in rural areas postal service means empowerment, education and information, he added.
Indian postal service has been given the license for setting up payment bank and 650 bank branches will be operational in the country by the end of this month. Department of Posts is actively pursuing Union schemes including Atal Pension Yojana and Jan Jeevan Beema Yojana, the Minister explained.
In his inaugural address, Mr. Naidu said from now Telangana postal circle and Andhra Pradesh postal circle will cater to the respective States and ensure efficiency in both. “Establishment of postal service in India was a game changer. It made letter writing an important part of the country’s literature,” he said citing the examples of letters of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose. He suggested there should be a day dedicated for handwritten letters. “Let’s say everybody will write a letter to his or her friend. There is something fresh and beautiful in letter writing,” he said. The Minister pointed out that India has the largest postal service in the world. There are 1.5 lakh post offices in India, out which 90 per cent are in rural areas.
Adding on to the country’s economy, Postal department has rolled out Banking solutions in 9,583 Post Offices and ATMs have been installed at 125 locations, Mr. Naidu added.
