Rs 2,000 crore cash delivered by postmen in 70 days of lockdown

Pradeep Thakur | TNN | Jun 5, 2020, 20:07 IST

(Representative image)

NEW DELHI: The poor in the country are enjoying the privilege of doorstep delivery of cash from their accounts in any bank, courtesy the India Post. In the last 70 days of the lockdown, postmen across the country have delivered Rs 2,000 crore in cash from different banks, mostly to people in villages of UP and Bihar.
TOI had reported on May 12 how in the first 50 days of the lockdown India Post had delivered Rs 1,000 crore using the Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS). The next Rs 1,000 crore has now been delivered in less than 25 days, that’s the speed with which the “cash at doorstep” service of the India Post has gained popularity.
The AePS services are available through wi-fi enabled handheld device. India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) launched it in September last year for providing cash at doorsteps to people having account in any bank in banked or unbanked areas. Today, it has become the single largest platform for providing “interoperable banking services” to customers of any bank having their account linked to Aadhaar.
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The new service has gained acceptance particularly in the rural areas, evident from the fact that over 43% of the total 1 crore such transactions between March 24 and June 4 have been done in UP and Bihar alone, mostly in villages.
According to India Post, in the first 50 days of the lockdown Rs 1,051 crore had been delivered in hotspot zones and migrant camps, serving the sick, elderly and the disabled. Looking at the convenience of the service, more and more people from villages and cities are logging in for cash deliveries.
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 AePS devices. The IPPB has developed a “PostInfo App” which can be downloaded from Google play store and a request for doorstep cash delivery can be registered.
The app provides doorstep service for speed post and collection of post office savings bank instalments as well. A toll-free number at 1800-180-7980 has also been activated for the purpose.