Postal dept. launches drive to mobilise small savings

Nearly 8.13 lakh savings bank accounts opened across the State

The Department of Posts has launched a campaign “Ungaludan Naangal” to encourage people to open savings accounts without hassles and to popularise its services.

In the last two months, nearly 8.13 lakh saving accounts under different schemes were opened across the State. Tamil Nadu circle has added one of the highest number of accounts in the country since January. The campaigns covered savings bank, recurring deposits, selvamagal semippu thittam, public provident fund and senior citizens savings schemes. At present, there are 2.9 crore savings accounts across the State.

B. Selvakumar, chief postmaster general, Tamil Nadu circle, said camps were held periodically at rural areas to enable residents to open new accounts and get introduced to insurance schemes such as Prime Minister Suraksha Bima Yojana and Prime Minister Jeevan Jothi Bima Yojana.

Residents could get access to Aadhaar services, including enrolments and updates, done through the special camps. The campaign would be held in all postal circles till March 31.

Officials said the rurring deposits garnered more response during the campaign. Nearly 4.12 lakh recurring deposit accounts were opened in the State in the past two months. Tiruchi and Chennai regions contributed to about half of the recurring deposits opened since January.

“We held exclusive melas for various schemes. For instance, in Chennai city region, about 45,000 recurring accounts were added during a mela day held last week. In Chennai city region alone, about 2.24 lakh new savings accounts were opened due to such initiatives this year,” said an official.

Besides weekly camps at rural and peri-urban areas, post offices would give priority to open SB accounts and customers may get ATM cards immediately, officials said.

However, several postal customers in Ambattur and Tambaram said the increase in minimum balance from ₹50 to ₹500 would lead to closure of postal saving accounts, especially in rural areas. They demanded that the minimum balance be revised as post offices largely catered to lesser privileged people.

Officials said they had written to the Union Ministry of Finance to reduce the minimum balance in postal saving accounts to ₹250.

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