In the presence of Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh Postal and Telecom circles were opened.

”The communications department has an onerous task on it to play a vital role in the making of a Digital India that will change the face of the country,” Venkaiah Naidu said on the occasion.

“BSNL has a brand name. It has got credibility. It has got a bright future. It is for you to work hard and the Centre will support you,” Venkaiah told the telecom employees.

"BSNL might face problems if it did not expand its cable network, install more towers, prevent call drops and render good services (to customers), Venkaiah cautioned. BSNL was making profits in 2004 when Vajpayee left the government. By the time Modi took over in 2014, it was steeped in losses to the tune of thousands of crores. I don’t want to criticize anybody for this. It has now started making the profit again as there is a lot of transparency,” the Union minister added.

"Noting that the postal system symbolized the country’s unity and played a major role in shaping modern India, the I&B minister is clear that post office would never become a past office, as being dubbed by some, since it would soon assume multifarious roles. In the near future, payments under MG NREGP and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana will be made through post offices. The Centres objective is to ensure welfare funds reach the beneficiaries directly without any pilferage. Postal payments banks will soon be opened to make these payments as there are not many (commercial) bank branches” Venkaiah added.

He said, "Post offices are expected to also be in greater demand as many new financial products like credit, savings and current accounts, mutual funds, insurance and pensions would be operated through them."

Chandrababu Naidu announced that "BSNL will be allotted five acres of land in the capital city Amaravati for its state headquarters. We will also like to work with BSNL for implementing our Fibre Grid project. It's the first time in history that we are soon going to offer telephone, television channels and the Internet through a single service at just Rs 149 a month."

State ministers D Umamaheswara Rao, K Srinivas, MP K Hari Babu and others also attended.

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BY M.DIVYA SRI