The State Government has initiated a move to cater to the long-felt need of enhancing the banks’ outreach to unbanked gram panchayats for providing quick banking solutions to the people and for ensuring timely delivery of Governmental benefits.
A meeting of the State-level Financial Inclusion Committee held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat on Tuesday decided to involve the Odisha livelihood Mission (OlM) and its organs as Banking Correspondents (BCs).
The committee considered non-availability of banks in many GPs as a barrier on the way of financial inclusion. Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan participating in the discussion suggested involving people’s bodies as banking intermediaries for carrying banking services to the people.
Panchayati Raj Secretary Deo Rajnan Kumar Singh suggested involving the OlM and the SHGs in this endeavour. Taking into consideration the presence of the OlM in all the GPs, Chief Secretary Padhi advised that good and credible SHGs as organs of the OlM can be taken up as Banking Correspondents (BCs) in unbanked GPs and remote areas.
A committee was constituted for the purpose under the chairmanship of the Panchayati Raj Secretary with the RBI, the Director Institutional Finance, the SBI CGM, the Nabard and the SlBC Convener. The committee would examine various aspects of involving SHGs as BCs and work out a suitable model. The Chief Secretary directed the committee to come up with its model within a month.
Available data show that presently 4,859 functional BCs are operating in the State. There are near about 5 lakh SHGs within the fold of the OlM out of which around 3 lakh SHGs have proven tracks of income-generating activities and livelihood operations. Their involvement as BCs is expected to provide a big push to bridge the spatial banking gaps in remote areas.
It was also decided at the meeting to form a DBT Cell and a DBT Advisory Board at the State level for carrying forward the activities for implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in the State. Accordingly, the Cell was formed under the chairmanship of the IT Principal Secretary. An Advisory Board was formed under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner.
The Chief Secretary further advised the banks’ authorities present at the meeting to enhance their tie-up with more corporate employers like l&T, Tata and Nerolac for finding more placements for the youths trained in RSETIs. He also advised them to involve branch managers of the respective areas in selection of candidates for skill training so that the banks do not find it difficult to finance them for self ventures after completion of the training.
Finance Additional Secretary and Director of Institutional Finance Tapan Kumar Pradhan, the SBI CGM, Nabard representatives, IT Special Secretary Rudra Narayan Pallai along with other senior officers from respective departments participated in the deliberations.