Odisha gears up to provide banking service in unbanked GPs

Bhubaneswar: Taking note of the insurmountable difficulties faced by the people, especially in the rural areas, due to the effect of demonetisation, the Odisha government has decided to expedite the process to provide banking service in the unbanked rural areas.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting presided over by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat here today.

Briefing media persons after the meeting, Principal Secretary, Home Tuhinkant Pandey said Banking Correspondents (BCs) will be appointed in about 1000 unbanked Gram Panchayats (GPs) of 107 blocks.

“The process for recruitment of BCs through Odisha Livelihood Mission will begin in two days,” he added.

Pandey further said the meeting decided that the banks will recruit the Bank Mitras and the Self Help Group (SHG) members as BC.

“It was decided in the meeting that initially 1000 BCs will be recruited for 1000 GPs while in the next six months, 6000 BCs would be recruited in 6000 GPs so that people of these panchayats can have free financial transaction,” he pointed out.

Talking about shortage of new Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, the Finance secretary said to overcome the problem the state government is mulling over digital payment mode.

“To raise awareness on digital payment among the people, a training programme would be held at the district level under the guidance of the district collector. The aim of the training programme is to acquaint people with cashless transaction,” he added.