The State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) today approved the road map for Financial Inclusion Plan (FIP) to provide banking services in the unbanked villages of Orissa having a population of more than 2000 as per the 2001 Census.
The road map was approved in the special meeting of SLBC convened for approval of this plan.
Simultaneously, the committee also approved the constitution of a sub-committee of SLBC to take up the issues relating to the FIP and oversee the programme in the state.
The sub-committee is headed by the General Manager (GM) of Uco Bank, who is also the convenor of SLBC in Orissa. It has deputy general manager (Rural Planning and Credit Department), RBI, deputy general manager, Nabard, director, institutional finance, government of Orissa, deputy secretary, Panchayatiraj department, General manager, State Bank of India (SBI), deputy general managers of Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), chairmen of five gramya banks and all thirty lead district managers.
Following the recommendation of the High Power Committee (HPC) on lead bank scheme headed by RBI deputy governor, Usha Thorat, special District Consultative Committees (DCCs) were constituted and villages having more than 2000 population have already been identified. The road map of the financial inclusion plan was approved by the DCCs earlier. The consolidated financial inclusion plan reveals that there were 1875 villages having more than 2000 population are without any banking facility. While Ganjam has the highest number of villages (261) having population of more than 2000, Deogarh district has only such one village.
The Lead District Mangers (LDMs) have been asked to convene the monthly sub-committee meeting of the DCCs on a regular basis and submit a report on the progress of the FIP to SLBC by 10th of every succeeding month. The SLBC, on its turn, would submit the progress report to RBI on 15th of that month. All the banks would appoint Banking Correspondents (BC) in the identified villages by February 2011. Speaking on the occasion, the regional director of RBI, Kaza Sudhakar, said, the FIP is part of the social commitment of the banking system. A number of regulatory approvals would depend on the performance of the banks in this area.
However, the banks should take into account complains, if any, from the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat in any village which is left out of the process despite meeting the criteria. Chief secretary, Tarun Kanti Mishra said, the districts like Malkangiri, Gajapati, Raygada and the KBK region remain neglected as far as reach of the banking sector is concerned. Finance secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, said, financial inclusion is part of the growth architecture of the state to promote inclusive growth.
Since growth by itself doesn’t percolate to poor and deprived sections, the paradigm has shifted to inclusive growth. Stating financial illiteracy is enormous in the state, the banks should strive to break the divide in areas like Malkangiri. He stressed on tight monitoring for achieving financial inclusion goals.
