Demonetisation impact: 50 per cent GPs in Odisha covered under banking services

17 November, Bhubaneswar

In a bid to address the issues arising out of demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, the Odisha government has covered about 50 per cent of the unbanked Gram panchayats in the state under banking services during last couple of days.

Official sources here Thursday said only about 2000 Gram Panchayats are left and State Chief Secretary A P Padhi advised the Banks to cover up the rest unbanked GPsthrough Branch Post Offices (BPO), Self Help Groups(SHG) and Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) Bank Mitras engaged by Panchayati raj Department.

He said since Bank Mitras are already familiar with the Banks their services can easily be utilized for the purpose. At a high level meeting here the Post Master General was advised to focus on the uncovered 2000 GPs through their branch post offices. The State Bank of India was also asked to provide sufficient cash to the BPOs as per their requirement. The BPOs would allow deposit up to Rs.25, 000 and withdrawal up to Rs.5000 per day in one single account.

RBI General Manager Prasanna Kumar Das present in the meeting assured that he would ensure additional cash supply to the respective chests for issuing to BPOs. Sources said around 1000 OLM bank mitras are now working at GP and village levels.

Almost each village has one or more SHGs linked to the bank. Since most of the branch post offices are located in rural areas the utilisation of their services as bank Correspondents would be of great help in covering the unbanked GPs.

The RBI General Manager informed that around Rs 5000 crore has been received in shape of new notes and those have been supplied to chests of various banks in the state.
The meeting also decided that since the cash flow has increased, special District Cordination Committee Meeting would be convened under the Chairmanship of Collectors to monitor the ground level situation closely.