Shillong, Oct 10: On the occasion of “World Post Day”, the Chief Post Master General of the North East (NE) Circle, Subrat Das, has informed that various programmes are underway in the State.

“World Post day is celebrated each year from 9th to 13th of October to commemorate the establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in Berne, Switzerland,” said Das in a press conference here on Monday.

The World Post day was first declared by the UPU Congress which was held in Tokyo, Japan, in 1969 and since then it has been celebrated all over the world to highlight the importance of the postal services.

“The purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness about the role of the postal sector in the lives of people and business and its contribution to the social and economic development of the country,” he informed.

Das further said the objective of the celebration is to generate broad awareness about India Post’s role and activities in the development of the nation and as part of the celebration various programmes like Vittiya Sashaktikaran Diwas, Philately Day, Mails and Parcels Day and Antyodya Diwas will elaborate the various services as provided by India Post.

He also added that various activities are planned at divisional/state and all India levels during the upcoming National Postal Week on various issues like campaigns for opening of Post Office Savings, Bank/ India Post Payment Bank Accounts and Postal Life Insurance /Rural Postal Life Insurance policies by organising one mela in each district of the circle.

An awareness cum Aadhar enrolment and updation camps will also be organised in rural/remote areas where people will be made aware about availability of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Social Security Pensions, Jan Suraksha Scheme (PMJJY, PMSBY, APY), Sukanya Samiridhi Accounts, AePS and other products and services of the Department of Posts.

On the last day of celebration, financial literacy campaigns will be carried out to adopt safety measures while doing digital payments and to avoid online frauds. Furthermore, these camps will be organised in rural areas, remote areas, urban slums, underdeveloped areas and undeveloped areas.

Das also stated that during the celebration there will be award ceremonies in recognition of the meritorious/outstanding contributions made by postal officials at various levels in different operations.

Elaborating on the services provided by the Post Offices, Das shared that under the North East Postal Circle various services will ensure banking services to all the customers especially in the rural areas who are deprived of banking facilities despite having opened 15,97,574 number of Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) accounts under various schemes out of which 1,44,142 are Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts.

Das also stated that at present there are 1,28,416 active Postal Life Insurance & Rural Postal Life Insurance policies and the North East Circle has covered 500 villages under the Bima Gram Yojana.

He added that in addition to this, 5,86,841 India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) accounts have been opened to provide seamless online banking facilities. He further added that the delivery staff have done 5,86,841 Aadhaar enabled Payment System (AePS) transactions and disbursed about Rs. 73.67 crores at people’s doorsteps.