The Chhattisgarh State Co-Operative Bank limited and District Co-Operative Central limited Bank are issuing RuPay Kisan credit cards to all the farmers under their jurisdiction in the State, officials informed.
About 7.31 lakh farmers had been issued RuPay Kisan credit cards against target of 10,000 farmers in the fiscal 2017-18.
The farmers will have easy access to loans facility, they informed.
Apex Bank officials said that District Co-Operative Central limited Bank Raipur had issued 1,32,525 Kisan Credit card holders Ru-Pay Kisan credit cards.
With an objective to provide facilities to farmers and bank account holders, the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank (Apex Bank) has already installed 13 ATMs in the State.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had ordered to open Cooperative bank branch offices in Kharsia, Dharamjaigarh, Saranggarh and Baramkela whereas the preparations for opening branch offices in Jashpur and Patthalgaon has also been made to provide facilities to the farmers, officials informed.
It needs to be mentioned that as many as eight State Cooperative banks in Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Bilaspur and Ambikapur whereas branch office of Apex Bank in Raigarh have been running wherein 13 ATMs including one in Raipur District Cooperative Bank, three in Durg District Cooperative Bank, two in Rajnandgaon District Cooperative Bank, two in Jagdalpur District Cooperative Bank, and one each in Bilaspur and Ambikapur District Cooperative Bank have been installed.
It may be recalled that during the financial year 2016-17, with a view to providing secure and accessible facility for financial transaction, the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank limited (Apex Bank) started installing Micro ATMs for use by farmers in Cooperative societies all over the State, officials informed.
The Apex Bank had invited proposals from 1333 Cooperative societies for providing on-line facility to the farmers so that farmers could take advantage of e-facility for banking and other works.
Similarly, Apex Bank will convert Kisan Credit Card into RuPay Debit Card so that farmers can do transaction and deposit as well through RuPay Debit Card.
RuPay Debit Card is beneficial for cash transfer into other bank accounts too.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is among two other states which seem to be doing better than average regarding number of people living near banks compared to some other states, the Economic Survey 2016-17 report has mentioned.
In year 2015 in a majority of states, people are 3-5 km away from any form of access point (bank branches, ATMs and Banking Correspondents, it stated.
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have persons travelling over 5 km to access formal financial services.
Surprisingly, the relatively poorer States of UP and Bihar (in addition to Chhattisgarh) seem to be doing better than average — with people living closer to the banks. This could merely be a function of high population density, it observed.
Financial inclusion in India has progressed substantially since the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the report mentioned.