The India Post has achieved a new milestone in the history of Indian banking as postmen across the country have delivered Rs 1,000 crore in cash to various account holders of different banks at their doorstep across the country. In addition to this, the transactions of the post office savings bank amount to another Rs 66,000 crore in nearly four crore transactions during the lockdown period, reports Times of India.
According to the reports, nearly Rs 1,051 crore have been delivered in as many as 59 lakh transactions during the lockdown between March 23 and May 11. With 20 lakh Aadhaar enabled Payment Services (AePS) transactions, Uttar Pradesh alone has contributed one-third of these transactions.
The migrant labourers who have returned back to their respective states are driving these success stories ironically. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Indian Post has delivered Rs 274 crore and Rs 101 crore respectively, making it top two states in transactions. Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra lower down the order among top five best performers.
Migrants have opened 23 lakh new bank accounts
The migrants have also scripted another success story by opening 23 lakh new bank accounts with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) during the lockdown period, including in backward and unbanked areas. The opening of such huge number of bank accounts at the India Post comes at a time when many financial institutions are struggling due to coronavirus pandemic, which has led to decrease in business operations.
The IPPB, which began its operation in September last year, has now emerged as the single largest platform for providing “interoperable banking services” to customer of any bank having their account linked to Aadhaar.
Speaking to Times of India, Pradipta Kumar Bisoi, Secretary, Department of Posts, had earlier said that more than two lakh postmen have been providing doorstep banking services to people through a network of 1.36 lakh post offices and 1.86 lakh handheld AePS devices.
Postmen using Aadhar infrastructure to enable easy banking
The postmen across the country are delivering cash by authenticating fingerprints at doorsteps – particularly in containment areas, migrant camps and hotspot zones, serving the sick, elderly and disabled through their Aadhaar enabled Payment Services (AePS), a wi-fi enabled device. Several old age pensioners and poor villagers are getting the benefit of cash deliveries of direct benefit transfer and PM Garib Kalyan Yojana credited to their bank accounts.
The payment bank of the India Post has developed a “PostInfo App”, through which a request for doorstep cash delivery can be made. The customers can also book doorstep service for speed post and collection of post office savings bank instalments through this app.
