Ranchi, July 2: Jharkhand postal circle, for the second consecutive time, has topped the country in Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and Postal Life Insurance (PLI) policies.

Last year, the department had achieved the target by giving the policy services worth Rs 510 crore while this year the RPLI and PLI has increased by 130 per cent. Jharkhand Postal department has covered around 70,000 under their policy so far.

Chief postmaster general of Jharkhand Postal Service, A.S. Prasad is set to receive an award in New Delhi shortly for the record.

Sunita Trivedi, the chief general manager (CGM) of PLI at the Jharkhand postal department, Doranda, who is also in charge of 22 postal circles across the country, said: “The Jharkhand postal circle has got the highest growth rate in terms of RPLI and PLI. We are getting a good response for both the policies and have achieved the required target in 2007 and 2008,” Trivedi added.

She further added that they are also planning to appoint new insurance agents in the Jharkhand postal circle soon to provide services in rural areas for Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and Postal Life Insurance (PLI).

The proposal is to appoint 20-25 agents in seven postal divisions of the state that have a requisite Plus Two qualification. “Thereafter these candidates would be trained as insurance agents from Mumbai Insurance Development Regulatory Authority. After the successful completion of training they would get licences from the postal department to become insurance agents,” said Trivedi.

Trivedi added that these agents would also get commission. “For this we request self-help groups and NGOs to send out applications to candidates who have passed Plus Two to become an agent,” she said.

Besides, Trivedi added, PLI is the oldest form of life insurance, which was launched in 1884 and was at first only meant for the post and telegraph but is now open to the general masses like PSUs and colleges.

This year the bonus rate of RPLI has increased from 50 per cent to 55 per cent, including an insurance coverage of 5.5 per cent. However, Trivedi rued that insurance coverage in India is just 10-12 per cent.