Giving a strict warning to postal officers of the eastern region of taking legal action against them if necessary, the state Consumer Affairs department has urged postal officers to take immediate steps so that people do not get harassed unnecessarily when they visit post offices.
State Consumer Affairs Minister Sadhan Pande held a meeting with the postal officers on Wednesday. He had convened the meeting after receiving a series of complaints about delayed and poor service in most of the post offices.
Pande said after the meeting that the post offices have been brought under the core banking system. As a result, a person will need to have an account in the post office to withdraw his or her money. It was not mandatory earlier.
Many people, including the elderly, were unaware of the fact. Not enough measures were taken by post offices to spread awareness about the system among people. No posters were put up inside post offices, nor liaison officers posted in post offices to help people gain information in this regard. However, the present situation is such that one needs to run from one table to another to get a work done. Moreover, link failure is another major problem.
Pande said: “I have clearly mentioned in the meeting that no one has any right to ask a person to come after a few days to get their money when it (the scheme) had already matured. I was told that with the introduction of the new system, people are not getting money even after 15 to 20 days after the maturity of their schemes. In such cases, the post office has to pay interest to the person for the number of days the payment was delayed or else they would be dragged to court.”
The postal officers of the eastern region told the Minister that they would write to their seniors in Delhi about Wednesday’s discussion. It is quite possible that such inconveniences that the people are facing at present to get service in post offices would make them reluctant in depositing money in post offices. Players in the chit fund market wait anxiously for such opportunities and utilise the moment to motivate vulnerable and naive people in investing in chit funds schemes, befooling them of giving higher returns. Eventually, many people get cheated.