Department of Posts should strive for 25 crore postal savings accounts from the current 17 crore in coming years-Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister of Communications Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the Department of Posts should strive for 25 crore postal savings accounts from the current 17 crore in coming years and should make efforts to link the same with the accounts of India Post Payments Bank for achieving the goal of financial inclusion. Speaking at an event of National Postal Week Celebrations here, the Minister urged the department to enhance considerably postal insurance accounts. He said that 3.05 crore insurance accounts in a population of 130 crore is unacceptable. He said that Postal Department should come forward to forge partnership with global companies and the administrative issues, if any, would be resolved amicably.

Shri Prasad asked the senior officials to work on a set of special stamps on Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in the wake of successful informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping due to its historic significance. He also directed the department of posts to organize a special letter writing competition on Bapu as a tribute to 150^th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, besides coming out with a set of stamps on unsung heroes of freedom movement and particularly of those imprisoned in Cellular Jail in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The Minister released a Mobile Banking App for POSB customers, commemorative postage stamps on India Perfumes Agarwood and Orange Blossom and launched a Performance Dashboard of the Department of Posts. He also distributed prizes for DhaiAkhar Letter Writing competition and felicitated Meghdoot Awardees for their exceptional contribution.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Posts, Shri A.N.Nanda said that over the years India Post has been providing services through its network of 1,55,000 post offices. As a part of its savings bank schemes, the department has opened 1.47 lakh SukanyaSamridhiYojna accounts for benefitting the girl child. With the setting up of 13,352 Aadhaar centres, 420 Post Office Passport SevaKendras and a robust digital platform through its Digital Advancement of Rural Post Offices (DARPAN) for A New India , the Department of Posts is trying to provide quality citizen centric services to the customers, he added.

India Post is celebrating National Postal Week from 9^th to 15^th October. 9^th October is celebrated as World Post Day. This year, this day was celebrated as 50^th World Post Day by UPU (Universal of Postal Union). India Post also organised activities like Postathon, ‘Meet and Greet’ the beat postman – unique concept of school children visiting Post Offices and rallies to spread awareness about various schemes of the post office. Activities for financial inclusion like SukanyaSamridhiYojana camps for the girl child,holding of Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance Melas, drives to spread awareness about various Savings Bank schemes were organised across the country during the National Postal Week.Philately Quiz, Exhibitions, DhaiAkhar letter writing competition, release of special covers, opening of Philately Deposit accounts, Aadhaar enrolment camps were also organised across the country during the week.