GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
DEPARTMENT OF POSTS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2298
TO BE ANSWERED ON 4TH AUGUST, 2017
MODERNISATION AND MECHANISATION OF POSTAL SERVICES
2298. SHRIMATI THOTA SEETHARAMA LAKSHMI:
Will the Minister of
COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:
(a) the
details of the process of modernisation and mechanisation of the postal
services and what it entails;
(b) whether
the budgetary allocation for mechanisation and modernisation of postal services
has increased in the past three years, if so, the details thereof and the
reasons therefor; and
(c) the
reasons for the disparity between budget estimate 2014-15 and revised estimate
2014-15 for mechanization and modernisation of the postal services?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF
COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE
IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) The IT Modernization Project of
Department of Posts was approved by the Government in November 2012 with a
total outlay of Rs 4909 crore. The Project involves computerization,
modernisation and networking of approximately 1, 55,000 Post Offices in the country,
including approximately 1, 30,000 Branch Post Offices in rural areas run by the
Gramin Dak Sevaks.
The scope of the project is as under :
1.
Modernization
and computerization of all Post Offices in the country;
2.
Deployment
of Rural Information & Communication Technology (Rural ICT) solution in all
the 1,30,000 rural Branch Post Offices in the country by supplying computer
hardware, solar charging devices and providing network connectivity to them;
3.
Establishment
of IT Infrastructure, viz., Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre and Wide Area
Network (WAN) based networking of all the departmental post offices, mail
offices, accounts offices and administrative offices;
4.
Development
of software applications covering all operations of the Department viz., counter
operations, mail processing, online
tracking and tracing of the mail article, Banking, Insurance, Finance &
Accounts and Human Resources management functions;
5.
Provision
of multiple channels of user interaction apart from the conventional post
office counters. These include web portals, ATMs, call centers, employee help
desks, SMS gateway etc.; and
6. Preparing Postal employees and Grameen Dak
Sewaks for the changes at their workplace on account of induction of technology
and training them for this.
(b) The
details of the budget allocations under Mechanisation and Modernisation and of
postal services under the plan head during the past 3 years are as follows:-
|
Financial Year
|
Budget Estimate (B.E)
(Rs. in crores)
|
Revised Estimate (R.E)
(Rs. in crores)
|
|
2014-15
|
616.31
|
172.00
|
|
2015-16
|
357.20
|
412.70
|
|
2016-17
|
300.00
|
303.61
|
(c) Due to curtailment of overall funds by
Ministry of Finance for the Department of Posts under Plan segment from Rs. 800
crore (B.E) to Rs. 300 crore at (R.E) stage, there was reduction of funds under
‘Mechanisation and Modernisation’ from Rs. 616.31 crore to Rs. 172 crore. This
led to disparity between B.E and R.E for the year 2014-15 under ‘Mechanisation
and Modernisation’ of Postal services.
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