Financial inclusion plan to be implemented in 5,563 villages

Public sector lender Indian Bank today said it plans to implement the financial inclusion programme in 5,563 villages in 19 states.

The bank has implemented successfully the programme in Cuddalore, Tiruvarur, Nilgiris and Kanyakumari districts of Tamil Nadu, Indian Bank Chairman T M Bhasin told PTI.

Bhasin said that under the plan, the bank proposed to appoint retired bank and postal employees as business correspondents in these villages, who would be given a small equipment, connected to a mother computer.

These correspondents would enter the amount collected from these villagers, which would be transferred to the computer and the deposit credited to the account holders on the same minute they deposited the amount, he said.
    
By this, the bank proposed to bring all villagers under the umbrella of banking in the next three years, he said.
   
This would also make the bank as "Pan India", he said.
   
Under the plan, bank would also press into service mobile van banking, which would have ATMs and credit disbursement facilities among other things. The first such van would be inaugurated in West Bengal by July 15, he said, adding that before August 15, five vans would be pressed into service in Tamil Nadu.
   
These vans would provide credit to self help groups at their door steps, he said.
   
Of the 5,563 villages to be covered under the plan, 4,014 would have a population of less than 2000, he said.