‘Project Arrow’ for North East Post Offices

Postal Services in Meghalaya are all geared up to receive a much needed face lift and this is going to happen sooner rather than later if we go by what was said by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of Meghalaya, Mr. Jyotiraditya. M. Scindia as he briefed members of the media in a press conference which was recently held in the Conference Hall of the office of the Chief Postmaster General, North East Circle, Shillong.
Mr. Scindia has taken up a pilot project called ‘Arrow’ whereby 200 post offices across the country will be upgraded and will act as ‘windows to the world’ for the rural population. In the North East Circle, 10 post offices have been selected for upgradation. These are located at Cherrapunjee, Jowai (Meghalaya), Sabroom, Panisagar (Tripura), Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Champhai, Lunglei (Mizoram), Mokokchung, Wokha (Nagaland), Senapati (Manipur). Through this upgradation, these post offices will be able to offer services such as e - post, Western Union Money Transfer, Instant Money Transfer Service (Domestic version of Western Union Money Transfer) which were services hitherto confined to post offices in the urban areas. The broad band internet connections which are required for these services will be provided by the BSNL in the areas which do not have this facility till date.
Mr. Scindia said that considering the fact that out of the 1.55 lakh post offices in the country, 1.38 lakh post offices are in the rural areas and thus serve 80% of the rural population of India, the interest payable under different deposit schemes offered by the Government of India through the post offices have to be re - evaluated. He further informed that the Department of Communications and Information Technology has taken up this matter with the Ministry of Finance and he hopes that it can soon bring about changes in this respect.
Stating that the people living in the rural areas are deprived of many of the financial benefits in the form of higher interest rate / higher returns being offered to the customers by banks and financial institutions in the urban areas, the minister said that this is a matter that needs to be rectified. As of now, the small investors who are a major constituent of the rural population have to depend on various Government of India Schemes offered through the post offices and are suffering a loss as the rates for the services offered by these post offices have not been revised in the recent past.
Another problem that these investors face is tat they have to approach banks and other financial institutions for loans and these banks and financial institutions often use their own discretion in sanctioning these loans. Added to this, they also often charge high rates of interest. Mr. Scindia said that he has approached the Minister of Finance, Government of India and endeavourer to obtain permission to allow the post offices to sanction loans to these investors against the NSCs/ KVPs/ Time Deposits held by them.
Being located in the rural areas, a major part of the work force in these post offices consists of the Gramin Dak Sevaks (Rural Postal Workers). As such, the Department of Communications and Information Technology is considering the increase of the wages of these workers and this matter has been taken up with the Department of Human Resource Development. Moves are also being made to allow the children of the Gramin Dak Sevaks of the Postal department on the same footing as other Central Government employees in all the Kendriya Vidyalayas.

EP DESK.