Banks to gear up for national roll out of DBT

The public sector banks need to gear up for the all India roll out of the direct benefit transfer scheme of Government of India as the number of beneficiaries is going to be a staggering number.

This was discussed in the state level bankers committee meeting of Haryana today.

The senior officials from Ministry of finance, government of India, Reserve Bank of India and Governmentof Haryana addressed the difficulties of bankers may face in the ambitious scheme of the centre to facilitate the funds directly to check the leakages in subsidy.

Rajat Sachar, Economic Advisor, Department of Financal services, GOI said that in order to reach out the beneficiaries in the hinterland and unbanked areas, the business correspondent model should be seriously implemented.

A roadmap should be drawn by the banks addressing the practical problems in the specific pockets and thorugh the district level bankers committee meeting the information should be imparted to the local bankers.

He pointed out that the finance minister of India has laid stress on the expansion of ATMs. The banks in their quarterly meetings should bring the ready reference data on the number of ATMs added in a quarter and the areas covered.

Since banks are going to play a crucial role in the new scheme and technical linking of the schemes, the bankers should regularly visit the websites of planning commission, department of  financial services and petroleum ministry.

The officials from the Haryana government apprised about the new schemes for rural development and the role banks can play by facilitating credit to the farmers.

The slow progress of self help groups was also discussed at the forum.