Indian govt mulling to rope in post office network to double up as common service centres

 ET Bureau  |  Aug 05, 2016, 07.21 AM IST

The Ministry of Electronics and IT's plans to rope in the country's 1,50,000-strong post office network to double up as common service centres (CSCs) — digital kiosks where people can access online government services— may have hit a roadblock.

The Department of Posts, which now comes under a separate ministry - communications — has expressed reservations about the ministry's proposal suggesting that the centres or the CSCs can be colocated with the post offices.

According to a senior official in the Department of Posts (DoP), sharing the postal network with that of the CSCs may be not possible. It has instead asked the ministry to put in place its own infrastructure in terms of computers and manpower if its wants to colocate CSCs with the post offices.

"The post office network operates services like postal saving accounts etc. It may not be ideal to offer services of CSCs such as booking of railway tickets etc through the same network," said the official who did not wish to be identified. The person added that the department may not have the adequate manpower to deal with the increased workload.

The CSCs, which have been recently renamed as Digital Seva Kendras, are supposed to be in rural areas of the country and help the citizens in those areas with the delivery of various electronic services like online ticket booking, Aadhaar enrolment, printing and generation of certifications, among others.

Colocating CSCs with the post offices may be a good strategy since the ministry can capitalise on the existing physical infrastructure and the reach along with the trust that the post offices have.

Under the Narendra Modi government's latest Digital India push, the government plans to expand the existing network of CSCs from 1,00,000 to 2,50,000. The government has also earmarked a budget of around Rs 500 crore for the so-called CSC 2.0 - the next version of the programme. These funds will go towards manpower training and capacity building.

An official of the Ministry of Electronics and IT said that they are working with Department of Posts to "resolve some of these issues." Another official added that the ask is not too much and can be accommodated by the Department of Posts. "It is a just a question of their willingness to do it," added the official.

IndiaPost, which has also received an in-principal approval last year from the Central Bank to operate a payments bank, plans to start the first 50 branches of its bank by May 2017. ET had reported earlier that India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) —as it has been termed — will eventually have 650 branches across the country.

While the first set of branches will open by May, the remaining will start operations by September 2017.