On Saturday morning, 79-year-old R. Lakshmipathy was elated when postal department staff visited his house, and honoured him. He is the oldest savings account holder (based on the date of opening the account) in Vellore district.
This was done as part of World Postal Week celebrations in Vellore district, which has around 200 post offices. Apart from Mr. Lakshmipathy, the department staff also honoured three other senior citizens who have savings accounts at the post office. Mr. Lakshmipathy, who joined the Postal and Telegraph Department in 1963 as a repeater station assistant, retired in 2001 as sub-divisional engineer in BSNL.
“I opened the account in 1983 and I now have a pension and savings account. When I was working in Chennai, I had an account at the Triplicane post office too,” he said. He said that post office accounts were reliable. “My son also has an account at the post office. Being a Central government organisation, I preferred this. Besides, I knew many in the postal department then,” he recalled.
The postal staff gave him a money bag and books with postal emblems. “We also honoured 90-year-old V.S. Pandurangan who has been holding an account since 2003, 75-year-old R. Krishnaveni from Cholavaram village and another senior citizen, A. Jagannathan,” said Komal Kumar, Superintendent of Post Offices, Vellore region.
Mr. Kumar said that usually, the customers are honoured at the post office itself. “But this time we asked the staff to go to their respective houses. This will build a rapport, and also it is safer during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he noted.