Rumours spark a mad rush to Munnar post office

IDUKKI: Officials of the post office at Munnar were pleasantly surprised when people in large numbers turned up to open postal savings account . The surprise, however, was short-lived.


Unidentified miscreants triggered a rumour that those with savings account in the postal bank would be credited with Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, as purportedly promised by Narendra Modi during his poll campaign in 2014.

The rumour spread fast, and people, mostly estate workers, rushed to the post office to open new accounts.

The post office on Sunday, had initiated a drive to add more account holders, following an instruction from the central government to open one crore new accounts across the country, V Paramasivam, post office superintendent, said on Tuesday.

The drive, perhaps, fuelled the rumour, and on Monday, police had to step in to manage the crowd that kept swelling in the town.

“We never said that those opening accounts will get any extra benefits. We arranged the facility to open new accounts based on the central government directive,” the superintendent said.

Sensing that things were getting out of hand, the post office put up a board to clear the air. People, however, ignored the board, and the postal bank at Munnar added 1,050 new account holders in just two days.

Even as the Munnar post office and the police were having a tough time convincing the crowd, the RDO office at Devikulam witnessed a sudden rush, demanding the “free land and house.”

They were at the RDO on hearing the “news” that those not included in the list of beneficiaries of land at Kuttiyar Valley, were being given another chance to submit applications.

As the queue got longer, officials issued a notice saying that the news was fake, but very few were convinced, forcing Devikulam sub-collector Renu Raj to direct the police to act against the rumourmongers.

District collector H Dineshan said the administration had not received any complaint so far. “If we get a complaint, we will probe the incident,” he said.