Forgot your deposit? Postal department will ring a bell

Post offices in the next few months may be expected to inform a large number of people, who have forgotten about their deposits, about the unclaimed money in around 2.49 crore accounts across the country.

Updated on: Sep 12, 2013, 01:46:12 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Post offices in the next few months may be expected to inform a large number of people, who have forgotten about their deposits, about the unclaimed money in around 2.49 crore accounts across the country. Many people like 62-year-old housewife Krishna, who had forgotten about Indira Vikas Patra deposit in a post office in Gurgaon will benefit by the move.

Information watchdog, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the postal department to take proactive steps to refund unclaimed money to legitimate claimants or their heirs. Public funds to the tune of Rs 1,164 crore are lying unclaimed under the Indira Vikas Patra.

Another Rs 752 crore is in the dormant saving post office accounts.

The CIC issued the order in an appeal filed by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal against the postal department for refusing information regarding dormant accounts.

He had sought details about 100 top unclaimed accounts in post offices but the department expressed its inability to provide information saying it was lying with individual post offices.

Agarwal, however, contended that the information was important as unclaimed balances were prone to fraud.

He cited the instance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issuing guidelines to banks to transfer dormant balances to the government of India account after a period of 10 years.

Such a mechanism is being done in the case of unpaid dividends which are required to be transferred to the government after 3 years.

Agarwal suggested that post offices adopt similar practice.

Agreeing with him, information commissioner Basant Seth said that the ministry of corporate affairs and the RBI have issued appropriate guidelines for monitoring and taking proactive steps to refund unclaimed balances.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.