Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, launched a historic and path-breaking scheme named “AMA Bank” for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets in all unbanked Gram Panchayats of the State.
People in 4,373 unbanked panchayats will get banking facilities. All such panchayats will get services by March 2024. The banking facilities started in 754 panchayats in the first phase today.
Six public sector banks have been included in the program. These are – State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. The Ama Bank will provide 15 types of banking services to the people in remote areas.
Out of the total 6,798 gram panchayats, about 4,373 do not have bank facilities. As bank facilities are an urgent need for financial empowerment of people, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has started Customer Service Point Plus (CSP PLUS) in all unbanked panchayats within six months.
The state government will provide banking space, electricity, internet and other related facilities to the banks in these panchayats for the next five years.
Launching the scheme online, Patnaik said “I want all the people of the state to get the benefit of financial inclusion. Bank account is very much required like land patta, Aadhaar card, voter ID card. If we get bank facility, various direct benefit transfers like KALIA, MAMATA, Madhubabu pension and loans for small traders can be directly and conveniently available to people. This is the main goal of our 5T initiative.”
The Chief Minister further said that Odisha is the first in the country to start such a scheme. The government is spending Rs 500 crore on the programme.
“Without financial inclusion of people, no country or state can bring development to all sections. Today, Odisha has become a role model in all areas of economic development, social development, digital transformation, good governance,” CM said.
Participating in the program, Odisha Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha said that Odisha has brought transformation in the financial sector today under the dynamic leadership of CM Naveen Patnaik. The Ama Bank scheme will take the financial progress further, he said.
5T and Nabin Odisha Chairman V.K Pandian who coordinated the programme, said it would have taken 30 years to reach all the panchayats at the pace at which the work is being done to bring banking services to unbanked panchayats. But due to the Chief Minister’s vision for financial empowerment of the people, it became possible in just six months, he added.
Ama Bank is a low-cost brick and mortar micro bank branch which sits between a BC and a small bank branch and will provide all necessary banking services like deposits, advances, remittances, Loans, Aadhar Enabled Payment System, credit linkage to SHGs, coverage under social security schemes etc.
