The elections are still in the process but women, largely from the minority communities sporting burqas, stood in long queues to open the account. Some of them believed that opening the IPPB account would ensure that they get Rs 8,500 per month. A woman said she stood in queue early in the morning itself. Another said everyone in her neighbourhood was saying that money would start coming from the day the account is opened, so she too came to open an account.
Most of the women PTI spoke to were from Shivajinagar, Chamarajpet and surrounding places in the city. Talking to reporters, Chief Post Master of GPO Bengaluru H M Manjesh said people have been coming to the office to open IPPB accounts in the belief that the Department of Post would credit Rs 2,000 or Rs 8,500 into their accounts. “Actually it is a rumour. Somebody has spread this rumour. The department will not pay any amount to them. However, this account can be used for any type of online transaction or even Direct Benefit (Transfer) scheme,” Manjesh clarified.
He said that the department has already informed the customers about this. “We have displayed some posters also. In spite of that, customers are requesting that we open IPPB accounts for them.” There was such a rush that more counters were opened outside the GPO building, under the open sky, he added.
“Earlier we used to open 50 to 60 accounts in a counter. Now we have made separate arrangements. We have brought our postmen for this purpose and regularly we are opening around 500 to 600 accounts, sometimes even 1,000 accounts in a day,” Manjesh said. According to sources in the department, this rush has been witnessed for the past three days. It is learnt that some Congress MLAs spread the rumours, believing which the women made a beeline for the GPO. The MLAs said that the women will start getting money after June 4 “when the INDIA bloc will come to power”.
The Congress has made a promise to launch the Mahalakshmi scheme under which Rs 8,500 will be directly credited into the account of women heads of families belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. It is similar to the Gruha Lakshmi guarantee scheme started by the Karnataka government in which Rs 2,000 is paid to women heads of BPL families.
