Hyderabad: Chief postmaster general of Telangana Dr P.V.S. Reddy met Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari on Thursday to discuss ways to improve postal services, particularly in rural areas. He explained to her that the postal department plays a crucial role in delivering government benefits to the people. Telangana’s post offices distribute Cheyuta pensions to 24.56 lakh pensioners and have handled payments of `926.36 crore to farmers under the Cotton Corporation of India’s price support scheme, `516.21 crore to workers under MGNREGA and `186.97 crore to farmers under the PM Kisan Yojana through India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).During the meeting, Dr Reddy highlighted the postal department’s role in providing various services. To further expand these services, he requested the Chief Secretary to permit branch post offices (BOs) to be set up inside gram panchayat buildings, making postal services more accessible in rural, tribal and underserved areas. He also urged her to direct district collectors to expedite the updating of postal department land records. The Chief Secretary assured her support for both requests.Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Dr Reddy said citizen-centric services mean making postal facilities more accessible, efficient and integrated with government schemes to benefit people at the grassroots level. These services include Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) for passport-related services, India Post Passenger Reservation System (IP-PRS) for railway ticket bookings and Aadhaar enrolment and updating services. Additionally, post offices provide government-to-citizen (G2C) services through Post Office-Common Service Centres (PO-CSCs), retail postal services, physical verification of PMEGP units and KYC document verification and collection.
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