Over Rs 1,000 crore home delivered by postmen

NEW DELHI: Fifty days of lockdown have marked a new milestone in the history of Indian banking: Rs 1,000 crore in cash has been delivered by postmen to account holders of different banks at their doorstep across the country. This, however, doesn’t include the post office savings bank transactions of Rs 66,000 crore in about four crore transactions, just during the lockdown period.
The returning migrants are scripting banking success stories in these sad and miserable times with UP and Bihar top two postal circles making highest cash deliveries of Rs 274 crore and Rs 101 crore respectively, Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra lower down the order among top five best performers.
Migrants are also scripting 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. These success stories are big achievements for the India Post at a time when many financial institutions are finding it difficult to survive and put together their business operations.

The IPPB, launched in September last year, is today the single largest platform for providing “interoperable banking services” to customer of any bank having their account linked to Aadhaar. Pradipta Kumar Bisoi, Secretary, Department of Posts, had earlier told TOI that more than two lakh postmen are engaged in providing doorstep banking services to people through a network of 1.36 lakh post offices and 1.86 lakh handheld AePS devices.
Through their Aadhaar enabled Payment Services (AePS), a wi-fi enabled device, postmen across the country are delivering cash by authenticating finger prints at doorsteps — particularly in containment areas, migrant camps and hotspot zones, serving the sick, elderly and disabled. 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.
During the lockdown between March 23 and May 11, more than Rs 1,051 crore have been delivered in as many as 59 lakh transactions. With 20 lakh AePS transactions, UP alone has contributed one-third of these transactions.
The payment bank of the India Post has developed a “PostInfo App” which can be downloaded from Google play store and a request for doorstep cash delivery registered. Now, people can also book doorstep service for speed post and collection of post office savings bank instalments through this app. Those who are not well acquainted with smart phones can raise service request through toll-free number at 1800-180-7980.