India Post to roll out its own ATMs beginning next month,

India Post to roll out its own ATMs beginning next month,IT & Communication Minister Kapil Sibal inaugurates National Data Centre in Navi Mumbai

India Post will out its own ATM services beginning next month. “The first of the ATMs would be rolled out simultaneously in New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore on February 5” Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and IT, said, after inaugurating the Data Centre of the India Post, set up in Navi Mumbai. Unlike commercial banks machines, access to India Post ATMs will be limited to customers of Postal Savings Bank, whose number exceeds 26 crores. The Postal Department has drawn up an ambitious plan to roll out 3000 ATMs by 2015, in a phased manner. The Department would also rollout 1.35 lakh micro ATMs, thereby empowering its rural post offices across the country.

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Mr Kapil Sibal strongly favoured a banking licence for India Post by stating that "the only department that can do financial inclusion is the Postal Department. India Post can leverage its reach of over 1.55 lakh post offices across the country, out of which 1.40 lakh are in rural and far-flung areas.”

India Post’s National Data Centre, spread over 3,000 sq ft and located at the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, will act as the nerve centre of all postal services, including savings, insurance and speed posts tracking. The Data Centre can house 80 racks and has a capacity of 250 terabytes. It also has a 250 TB disaster recovery centre in Mysore. It has been jointly set up by the Department of Post in collaboration with Reliance Communications, Navi Mumbai. “This is the milestone in the modernisation programme of the postal department, with services such as insurance, savings bank, speed post and money order all being computerised,” Mr. Sibal added. The Navi Mumbai Data Centre will help India Post extend core-banking like facilities to its Savings Account holders.

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Centre issues directive for 150 days work under MGNREGA for STs in Forest Areas.

The Ministry of Rural Development has issued a directive to provide 150 days of wage employment under MGNREGA for Scheduled Tribe households living in forest areas. The move will benefit about Eight lakh people in the states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, The additional 50 days of employment beyond the stipulated 100 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will be applicable to those individuals who got pattas under Forest Rights Act, FRA( 2006). Approximately, 14 lakh individual and community titles have been distributed under FRA 2006. Of these around 8 lakh individual titles have been given in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa. It is these individuals who will be able to claim the benefit of 150 days.

The Ministry of Rural Development thinks that this is an important initiative since a lot of land-levelling, plantation and other activities are required to be undertaken on these lands to make them more productive. The additional days through MGNREGA will allow the households to undertake additional work on their own land. Further, FRA beneficiaries have already been automatically included for assistance under the Indira Awaas Yojana.

Other initiatives for ensuring effective implementation of MGNREGA in naxal affected areas have also been taken like a convergence project with National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in 250 most backward blocks of the country. Several of these ST-dominated blocks are located in Naxal districts. The Ministry has also allowed for cash payments of wages in 88 Integrated Action Plan (IAP) districts. To proactively register demand, the Ministry has launched Kaam Maango Abhiyan and the project is being implemented in 6 pilot districts including West Singhbhum in Jharkhand and is being upscaled to all naxal affected areas.

Morever, it has initiated the Governance and Accelerated Livelihood Support project in collaboration with UNDP in 12 naxal affected districts and they are Latehar, Palamu, Gumla and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, Malkangiri, Koraput, Nuapada and Kalahandi in Odisha and Sukma, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Balrampur in Chhattisgarh. The Project will focus on livelihood assets creation through MGNREGA IN 500 Gram Panchayats in these districts.

Finally, new works have been added to the existing list of permissible works under MGNREGA with a focus to strengthen synergy between MGNREGA and rural livelihoods, particularly in agriculture. Besides ensuring durable quality assets, the expansion of MGNREGA works is likely to improve the socio-economic condition of marginalized section of the society like SC/ST, Small and Marginal farmers, IAY beneficiaries, Forest Right Act beneficiaries etc as most of the new works are now permitted on the land or homestead of specified individual beneficiaries. 

Source: PIB