The State Government has provisioned Rs 100 crore for the construction of buildings of new rural banks as part of expansion of banking services in the rural areas of the State through financial inclusion.
Every Gram Panchayat can construct building of bank branch at a cost of Rs 10 lakh under Mukhyamantri Gram Samriddhi Bhavan Yojana.
Panchayats and Rural Development Department is also appointing nodal officer to implement this scheme. This was stated by Panchayats & Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava while online inaugurating five new rural branches of Canara Bank here on Tuesday.
He inaugurated the bank branches by clicking on a laptop at a programme, which was presided over by Additional Chief Secretary Panchayats and Rural Development Aruna Sharma. Commissioner Panchayati Raj Raghuveer Shrivastava was also present.
The new branches were opened at village Karariya Tiraha, Hensua and Jiwajipur in Vidisha district, village Medhki in Raisen district and village Dhangaon in the district of Jabalpur
At present, these bank branches have been housed in the Government buildings available in respective villages. Rs 10 lakh each has been sanctioned by Panchayats and Rural Development Department for bank branches’ buildings under Mukhyamantri Gram Samriddhi Yojana.
The buildings will soon be constructed with the cooperation of concerning Gram Panchayats. Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayats and Rural Development Aruna Sharma said that Madhya Pradesh’s model for financial inclusion ‘Samriddhi’ has been successfully implemented.
So far, 2024 ultra-small banks have been opened providing banking facilities within every 5 km radius in the remote rural areas of the State.
As a result, amounts payable to beneficiaries of social pension schemes, scholarships to students and labourer’s wages through the MGNREGA scheme are being directly deposited in the accounts they hold with respective bank in or around their villages.
Madhya Pradesh’s novel initiative has been replicated by the other States also. The Central Government has taken notice and plans to replicate Madhya Pradesh’s model ‘Samriddhi’ in the entire country from Independence Day this year.