Odisha signs MoU with 6 banks to service unbanked gram panchayats

The Odisha government has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with six public sector banks for catering to all unbanked gram panchayats, officials said.

The lenders include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and UCO Bank.

Around 65 per cent of the 6,798 gram panchayats (GP) do not have brick and mortar branches, they said.

“Since banking is an essential service for financial inclusion, every GP of the state needs to be provided with a brick and mortar branch for easy access to banking services, and strengthening the direct benefit transfer system,” an official said.

The Odisha government has, therefore, come forward with a scheme for providing banking services to every GP through ‘CSP (customer service point) plus banking outlets’, he said. The scheme, for which a provision of Rs 500 crore has been made, will be implemented in a phased manner to cover all unbanked GPs within the current financial year, he said.

“Odisha is the first state in the country to adopt such an exemplary model for providing banking services to all GPs,” an official of the finance department said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)