Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati has advised the banks and concerned Government departments to complete the household survey at village level by December 24 and open bank accounts of all households by January 15 under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
Pati on Wednesday also asked the banks and concerned departments to work jointly to make people aware about safe deposit of their savings in banks and Post Office accounts. Development Commissioner Upendra Nath Behera, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) R Balakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperation Rajesh Verma, the Post Master General and officials of various nationalised banks participated in the discussions.
The review revealed that timelines have been set for coverage of all gram panchayats through banking systems. Pati advised the banks to adopt various models like banking correspondents, mobile banks with ATM facility, brick and mortar branches, citizen service centres, SHGs, etc., to cover all GPs within least possible time. He assured all Government help to the banks on connectivity and power supply. RBI Regional Director PK Jena said a target has been set to touch all GPs through banking services by December next year, and it has been proposed that the State Cooperative Bank would participate in the Jan-Dhan Yojana with its entire network.
The issues relating to connectivity through broadband and dongle were also discussed. The Chief Secretary directed the BSNl and BBNl authorities to work out a GP-wise work plan for establishing connectivity to all GPs. For this purpose, a committee was constituted under chairmanship of the Development Commissioner involving the BSNl, BBNl and the State Government’s IT Department.
The proposal for Aadhaar linking of bank accounts of the beneficiaries of various schemes also figured at the meeting. According to available data, around 2.56 crore people have been registered under the Aadhaar scheme in the State so far. The respective departments are developing application software to link to the Aadhaar database and authenticate the seeding of beneficiaries on the verifier screen.
The banks were advised to hold at least one programme on financial literacy each month in each branch and Pati advised them to involve the Farmer Information Centres, banking correspondents, block-level extension officers, Gaon Mitras and Krushak Sathis in the financial literacy programmes and disseminate the message through them.