Bhubaneswar: With the signing of an MoU with the State Bank of India, Orissa became the first state to carry forward financial inclusion and extend banking services in unbanked areas with the help of self help groups (SHGs) constituted under Orissa Livelihood Mission (OLM).
The state government and SBI Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to extend banking services to remote areas with the help of SHGs who would be engaged as banking correspondents (BCs) to provide such services.
OLM director Pranab Jyoti Nath and SBI assistant general manager Srikant Hota signed the agreement in the presence of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi and managing director of SBI (national banking group) Rajnish Kumar.
“Around 70 per cent of panchayats do not have brick and mortar bank branches. Carrying the banking services to people in the remote areas has been the government’s main concern. This agreement would help extend basic banking services to people in rural areas,” Padhi said.
Financial inclusion does not mean simply opening a bank account. It implies meeting credit needs of people to enhance their livelihood and income. He hoped SBI would speed up the process in a big way through SHGs. Panchyati Raj secretary DK Singh said with the signing of the agreement, OLM would function as a corporate agent and three lakh SHGs would be banking correspondents. The SHGs would be engaged as BCs in 1,000 remote panchayats in scheduled areas having no banking facilities in the first phase, Singh said, adding. “Gradually, it will be extended to 4,000 non-banked GPs and then to the entire state.”
Kumar said, ‘‘This is a historic pact to generate OLM resources to provide banking facilities in unbanked areas. Orissa is a pioneer in carrying forward the financial inclusion with the support of SHGs and Banks.” He hoped such collaboration would have positive impact on Aadhaar seeding of bank accounts.
SBI chief manager Prasanna Kumar Behera said this arrangement would help people get services like opening of bank accounts, recurring and fixed deposit accounts, cash deposits, withdrawals, remittances, Aadhaar-enabled payment, use of Rupay card and Aadhaar seeding of accounts for DBT.
This would help rural people obtain benefits under social security schemes like Pradhan Mantri Bima Surakshya Yojana, Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana among others, he added.
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