Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday said that the postal system was being revamped on the lines of Digital India but assured that not a single employee would lose his job as a consequence.
"Thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, the postal system is being developed on the lines of 'Digital India'," Prasad said in Patna at a function to inaugurate the first postal ATM in Bihar.
He said that it was a matter of pride that electronic transactions had now begun in post offices.
"I can assure that the postal department will take care of postal officials and they would not lose their jobs," Prasad added.
He said postmen and post office officials have to adapt to the latest technology.
"Post-men working in rural areas would be provided modern handheld devices and post offices would be computerised," the minister said. The handheld devices are aimed at ensuring last-mile connectivity for banking transactions of India Post across its over 1.5 lakh branches.
India Post has over 155,000 post offices, of which more than 139,000 are in rural areas.
Expanding utilities of Post offices, the Centre is planning to open 1,000 ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) all over the country to provide facility of cash withdrawal round the clock, Union Information and Technology Minister Ravishankar Prasad said today.
Inaugurating the fist postal ATM in Bihar at the GPO (General Post Office) in Patna, Prasad said the facility was part of efforts to increase the point of presence for customers, particularly in the rural areas.
Bihar Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav and senior state BJP leaders Sushil Kumar Modi and Nand Kishore Yadav were present at the function.
Addressing the function, Chief Post Master General Abhay Shankar Prasad said Bihar has 9,000 post offices, out of which 1,048 were fully computerised.
In Bihar, installation of ATM rooms have been done at 38 locations out of which three in Patna were ready for transactions, he added.
Written with agency inputs.
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