Lok Sabha Question No. 1602 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-10
Subject: Modernization of Post Offices
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Mimi Chakraborty

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF POSTS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1602 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10 TH  FEBRUARY, 2021

## MODERNIZATION OF POST OFFICES

## 1602.   MS. MIMI CHAKRABORTY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  Government  proposes  to  modernise  over  160,000  post  offices  providing  postal services and postal banking systems in the country;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  total  number  of  post  offices  that  are  equipped  with computerised systems;
- (c) the status of post offices in the State of West Bengal and the proposal by the Government to upgrade the same; and
- (d) the proposal by the Government to shift and / or relocate post offices from old and inhygenic building to new address?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a) Under  the  IT  Modernization  Project,  the  Department  of  Posts  have  modernized  the  Post Offices to provide better postal services and postal banking systems in the country.
- (b) The details are as under:-
- i. All  the 25,409 Departmental  Post  Offices  in  the  country  have  been  computerized.  The Department has modernized 1,29,157 Branch Post offices by providing Subscriber Identification  Module  (SIM)  based  Handheld  Point  of  Sale  devices  for  carrying  out  online Postal Services and Postal Banking financial transactions under Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India (DARPAN) Project.
- ii. The project includes providing Central Server based integrated, modular and scalable solution for  all  the  operations  of  Department  of  Posts  including  Mails,  Human  Resource,  Banking, Insurance and Finance and Accounts. It also involves creation of IT Infrastructure like Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre, setting up of a Wide Area Network (WAN) and providing solar powered and portable hand-held computing devices (Micro ATM compliant) to all the Branch Post Offices.

- iii. As on 31.01.2021, 23464 Post Offices are providing Core Banking Services (CBS) to the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) customers enabling them to transact their POSB accounts from any post office across the country.
- iv. 1000 ATMs have been installed, with at least one in each District Headquarters. These ATMs are  inter-operable  with  other  banks . Internet  banking  services,  (e-banking)  have  been  made available for POSB customers from 14.12.2018.
- v. Through  the  e-banking  facility,  POSB  account  holders  can  make  deposits  into  Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) and the Post Office Public Provident Fund (PPF) accounts online from their POSB savings account.
- vi. The  POSB  customers  have  also  been  provided  with  the  facility  of  Mobile  Banking  from 15.10.2019.
- vii. Postal life insurance (PLI) services are being provided through Core Insurance Solution (CIS) which has been rolled out in all the Post offices and through this solution, the customers can make premium payment at any post office and has also enabled central processing centres to provide faster claim settlement and after-sales service.

(c) In the state of West Bengal, all 1721 Departmental Post Offices have been computerised.  All the 7263 Branch  Post  Offices  of  West  Bengal  are  provided  with  Subscriber  Identification  Module (SIM) based Handheld Devices to provide networked services to  rural  population  of West  Bengal under DARPAN Project.

- (d) The condition of the post office building that are in old and unhygienic conditions are closely monitored at Divisional level, Regional level & Circle level in West Bengal Circle.  In last 3 years 13 Post Offices were shifted to new address.  There is no proposal pending for shifting to new address as on 03.02.2021.

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