Parliament has passed the Post Office Bill, 2023 with Lok Sabha approving it today amid din. The Bill seeks to replace the Indian Post Office Act, 1898.  According to the provisions of the Bill, the Director General of Postal Services will be appointed to head the India Post. The Director General will have powers to make regulations on various matters including tariffs for services and supply of postage stamps. The Bill provides that the Government may intercept an article transmitted through India Post on specified grounds, including security of the state and public order.<br />'' <br />''Replying to a brief discussion over the Bill, Minister of State for Communication Devusinh Chauhan said, the Government is providing citizen-centric services through the large network of one lakh 64 thousand post offices. He said, Narendra Modi's Government is working with the motto of perform, reform and transform and the Postal department has made several technological interventions to provide citizen-centric services. <br />''<br />''He said the Postal department is playing an important role in providing benefits of several schemes to the people. He added that more than three crore Sukanya Samriddhi accounts and more than 10 crore Aadhar have been opened by the postal department so far. He said, more than 400 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras have been set up across the country.<br />'' <br />''<span style="color: #222222;">Earlier, participating in the discussion, Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi supported the legislation saying it is an important step in restricting the postal department. Bhola Singh of the BJP supported the legislation. He highlighted that several measures have been taken by the government to strengthen the postal department. Ramshiromani Verma of BJP and Prataprao Jadhav of Shiv Sena also supported the Bill.</span><br />