Bhubaneswar: The Finance Department of the Odisha government on Wednesday entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with six Public Sector Banks (PSBs), namely State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda for providing banking services in all unbanked Gram Panchayats (GPs) of the State through CSP Plus banking outlets, said an official press release.
Financial inclusion is a high priority agenda of the Government. It is still a critical challenge since banking penetration in the state is quite low and not uniform across the districts. Out of 6798 GPs, around 65% of GPs (4373 GPs) do not have brick and mortar branches.
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 in the State.
The government of Odisha has therefore come forward with an ambitious scheme for providing banking services to every GP through CSP Plus banking outlets. The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner to cover all unbanked GPs of the State within the current financial year 2023-24. The government of Odisha will provide rent-free banking space for 5 years. The State Government will also bear one-time expenses for Fixed Cost and recurring expenses for a period of three years. A provision of Rs. 500 Cr. has been made for the scheme.
This is one of the landmark initiatives by any State Government to transform financial inclusion and take it to the next level in line with the 5T Mantra of the CM.
Odisha is the first State in the entire country to adopt such an exemplary model for providing banking services to all GPs.
People residing in all Unbanked Gram Panchayats of the State will have easy access to all kinds of banking services, free of cost. Senior citizens, differently-abled people and pregnant women will get doorstep banking services and avail of the Direct Benefit Transfer of the Government in a timely manner.
