Telangana State postal circle comes into being

​Hyderabad: Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Telangana Postal Circle at Ravindra Bharathi auditorium on Monday. Union Ministers Manoj Sinha and Bandaru Dattatreya were also present at the function.

• Union Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu launches Telangana Postal Circle
• Says they can fully tap the emerging new markets like e-commerce and ensure bridging the digital divide by creating state-of-the-art service providing centres

Speaking on the occasion, Venkaiah Naidu said post office had always been on the forefront of financial inclusion in India. Post Office Saving Bank (POSB) had a customer base of 33.03 crore as on March 31, 2015. There had been a sharp increase in it due to several welfare schemes, he said adding that this year marked the introduction of 250th year of regular postal system in India by Lord Clive in 1766.

But it was not before the Post Office Act, 1854, that it was organised on all India basis. The NDA government had re-launched the Kisan Vikas Patra from November 2014, he said, and added that they were earlier discontinued in 2011.

In the wake of bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh into AP and Telangana States, the Department of Posts would have a Postal Circle co-terminus with each State. Therefore, Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle was required to be divided into two Postal Circles viz. Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle and Telangana Postal Circle. The Telangana Postal Circle would have 10 revenue districts co-terminus, he said.

After creation of Telangana Postal Circle, Hyderabad city and Hyderabad regions have become the part of this circle covering 10 revenue districts. Khammam, Vijayawada, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam regions are part of the residual Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle covering 13 revenue districts. From now onwards Telangana Postal Circle and Andhra Pradesh Postal circle will cater to respective States.

It will increase efficiency for both. Andhra Pradesh Postal circle would get a new headquarter at an appropriate time, he said. According to the Union Minister, the Telangana Postal Circle is playing a major role in ensuring financial inclusion.

“On an average, 17.7 lakh social security pensions disbursed amounting Rs 210 crore every month. On an average, Rs 900 crore is being disbursed to the wage-seekers in Telangana Postal Circle under MGNREGA through Aadhaar enabled bio-metric system.

As a result of the Aadhaar enabled payment system, leakage of government funds is nil as the amount reaches the beneficiaries directly with his or her bio-metric authentication,” he said.

Since the geographical spread was manageable, the Postal Circle could fully tap the emerging new markets like e-commerce and ensure bridging the digital divide by creating state-of-the-art service providing centres in the form of core banking solutions, rural information and communication technology, setting up of India Post Payment Banks etc, he said.