Ranchi: India Post,
Jharkhand, will become the first in the country to open a bank branch India
Post Payments Bank (IPPB) in January.
The basic preparations in
terms of infrastructure, manpower and training have been completed.
The move to came after Prime
Minister Narendra Modi announced that all post offices should be converted to
banks by January next year. The IPPB was incorporated as a public limited
company, under the department of posts, Government of India, in August 2015
with 100% government equity.
Postmaster General,
Jharkhand circle, Anil Kumar said that the first bank branch will begin
operations at GPO, Doranda, for which a separate building has been constructed.
"Once the GPO branch becomes functional, all other post offices in the
state will also start functioning," Kumar said.
There are more than 2,800
India Post offices across the state and the number is likely to be increased to
3,400. "In addition, we have over 100 panchayat seva kendras (PSK) and
over 4,000 postmen who can work as business correspondents," Kumar said.
The postmen are being
provided with PoS machines. Officials will not only receive money for deposits
and disburse payments but will also open new accounts, sell insurance
instruments and register money orders. At present, the postal department has
issued kits to over 2,700 post offices, which includes a biometric device,
printer and a tab for digital transactions.
Kumar said that more than
500 people have already been trained on financial inclusion tools, the usage of
PoS machines and briefed on the functioning of post offices as business
correspondents. "We have hired experts from Infosys and Rico for training
our staff and the training is going on in Ranchi and Jamshedpur," Kumar
said.
India Post has also issued
debit cards to saving account holders in post offices and once the banking
facility begins, more debit cards will be issued. "It will work as
full-fledged banks in the wake of the existing robust infrastructures in the
remote corners of the state," Kumar said.
Out of 456 post offices, 358
have already been brought on the CBS platform and this is all set to boost the
banking structure of Jharkhand post offices once the headquarter branch becomes
operational.
source: Times of India
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