MODERNISATION AND DIVERSIFICATION OF POST OFFICES

The Department of Posts has decided to improve Look and Feel of its post offices through Project Arrow. The project has been launched by modernizing departmental post offices across the country in a phased manner with an aim to make visible, tangible and noteworthy differences in post office operations that matter to ‘Aam Aadmi’. It aims at comprehensive improvement of the core operations of the post office as well as the ambience in which postal transactions are undertaken.           The number of post offices covered for modernization under ‘Look & Feel’ component of ‘Project Arrow’ during the last three years is as follows: 2009-10  -  500 post offices covered 2010-11  -  530 post offices covered 2011-12  -  206 post offices covered           The Department is diversifying activities in post Office to earn additional revenue which is an on-going process. The IT Platform set up under the IT project will support new products and services. It had diversified its activities to utilize its vast network to sell products and services for other organizations like: 1.     Booking of Railway reserved tickets. 2.     UID enrolment/Delivery of AADHAAR cards. 3.     Selling of passport forms in identified post offices. 4.     Accepting of utility bills in identified post offices. 5.     Disbursement of wages to MGNREGA beneficiaries through Post Office Savings            bank 6.     Collection of Rural Price Index Data – the data so collected are electronically         ransmitted to Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. 7.     Payment of old age pension paid by State Government through Post Office Savings         Account and through Money Orders. 8.     Sale of gold Coins. 9.     Provision of New Pension Scheme through Post Officers, etc.           This information was given by Dr (Smt.) Killi Kruparani, Minister of State for C&IT in written reply to a question in Rajya   Sabha today. ******** MV/RK (PIB)