To cater to the rush for opening accounts under the ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana’, all the 9,668 post offices in the State will remain open on Sunday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Sree Ramanavami National Music Festival, Chief Postmaster General M.S. Ramanujan said, “Post offices will function just to open accounts under the scheme as the fiscal ends this month-end. Working professionals can avail of this opportunity to open accounts for their daughters.”
Officials in India Post hope that around 150 accounts would be opened in each post office on Sunday. By mid-March, around 93,000 accounts had been opened in the Karnataka circle alone.
The scheme, launched as part of the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign, is a small deposit scheme for the girl child. An account can be opened at any time from birth till the girl attains the age of 10, with a minimum deposit of Rs.1,000 in any post office or authorised branch of commercial banks. Contributions can be made for 14 years and the account matures after 21 years. The annual interest for 2014-2015 is 9.1 per cent.
