Mumbai, Feb 26 (IANS): The Department of Posts (DoP) and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), Maharashtra circle, felicitated the top five Grameen Dak Sevaks (GDS) of the 'BBPS Diwali Dhamaka Campaign', officials said here on Friday.

The Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) was launched by the Reserve Bank of India for easing payment of bills across the country and boosting the digital payment drive.

IPPB had launched the BBPS 'Cash-to-Bill' feature in September 2021, and started a campaign for three months till January-end.

The BPPS offers myriad utilities bill collection categories, insurance premium, mutual funds, schools or institution fees, credit cards payments, FastTag recharges, local or housing society taxes, etc. at a single window, proving a boon for the users.

The Maharashtra circle alone contributed over 57,000 bill payment transactions, or nearly 60 per cent of the all-India figures, said Chief PostMaster General, Maharashtra circle, Veena Srinivas, in the presence of G.R. Bansal, IPPB's Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, New Delhi.

"Any person can make bill payments through cash without having an IPPB account at any post office through any postal personnel across India. In Maharashtra and Goa, the facility is available at 12,000 post offices and at the doorsteps through more than 16,000 postmen/postwomen and the GDS," said Srinivas.

The top five Grameen Dak Sevaks felicitated were Vishwanath Lingayat of Ratnagiri (4,127 transactions), Shivaji Kumbhar of Kolhapur (3,834), Rajesh Utekar of Ratnagiri (3,666), who were awarded scooters, while the next two performers, Jaydeo Adhav of Amravati (3,064) and Yasin Pinjari of Kolhapur (2,169) won smartphones.