Following the State Government’s move to meet the situation arising out of the demonetisation, around 50 per cent of the unbanked GPs have been covered under banking services during last couple of days, leaving a gap of around 2,000 GPs, according to an official report.
The matter was discussed at a high-level bank coordination meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Thursday. Padhi advised the banks to cover up the rest unbanked GPs through Branch Post Offices, Self-Help Groups and Odisha livelihood Mission (OlM) Bank Mitras. The Post Master General was advised to focus on the uncovered 2,000 GPs through their branch post offices (BPOs). The State Bank of India was advised to provide sufficient cash to the BPOs as per their requirements. The BPOs would allow deposit up to Rs 25,000 and withdrawal up to Rs 5,000 per day in one single account.
RBI General Manager RBI Prasanna Kumar Das assured that he would ensure additional cash supply to the respective chests for issuing to the BPOs. Most of the BPOs are located in rural areas.
The meeting also decided that since the cash flow has increased, special District Coordination Committee meetings would be convened under the chairmanship of Collectors to monitor the ground situation.