Governance
Five Star Villages Scheme: India Post
- 11 Sep 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
The Department of Posts (Ministry of Communications) has launched a scheme called Five Star Villages. The scheme seeks to bridge the gaps in public awareness and reach of postal products and services, especially in interior villages.
Key Points
- Objective: To ensure universal coverage of flagship postal schemes in rural areas of the country.
- Features:
- Three components: Product and Service Availability, Product and Service Publicity and Product and Service Marketing.
- One-Stop Centre: Branch offices will function as one-stop shops to cater all post office related needs of the villagers.
- Schemes covered:
- Savings Bank accounts, Recurring Deposit Accounts, NSC/KVP certificates,
- Sukanya Samridhi Accounts/ PPF Accounts,
- Funded Post Office Savings Account linked India Post Payments Bank Accounts,
- Postal Life Insurance Policy/Rural Postal Life Insurance Policy and
- Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Account/Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Account.
- Rating System: One Scheme is equal to one star of rating. Therefore, if a village attains universal coverage for four schemes from the above list, then that village gets four-star status and so on.
- A Pilot Implementation: The scheme is being launched on pilot basis in Maharashtra; based on the experience here, it will be implemented nation-wide.
- Implementation Strategy:
- It will be implemented by a team of five Gramin Dak Sevaks who will be assigned a village for marketing of all products, savings and insurance schemes of the Department of Posts.
- This team will be headed by the Branch Post Master of the concerned Branch Office. Mail overseers will keep a personal watch on the progress of the team on a daily basis.
- Significance
- India Post has been serving the people in an extraordinary way in the difficult situation which has emerged due to Covid-19, by bringing them medicines and financial assistance.
- The Postal Department has been playing a major role in the implementation of Government schemes, leveraging the immense strength of its vast network.
- Postal schemes are known for providing highly secured deposits, they provide higher return of interest with low risk.
- The way to realize the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is through collaborative efforts such as this, wherein various schemes have been brought together under one umbrella, with the goal of providing financial inclusion.
