Odisha ticks off banks for insufficient brick and mortar branches

State is attaching huge importance on DBT, whose success hinges on presence of bank branches in rural areas untouched by banking services

The Odisha government has pulled up commercial banks for not doing enough to install brick-and-mortar branches in unbanked regions of the state. Odisha still lacks bank branches especially in aspirational districts and the ones affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

“The state government is attaching huge importance on DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer). But the success of DBT hinges on the presence of bank branches in rural areas untouched by banking services. Unless financial inclusion is strengthened with brick and mortar branches, the DBT model cannot succeed,” Niranjan Pujari, Odisha’s minister for finance & excise said at the 157th meeting of the