K C Chakrabarty lauds banks for fin inclusion

Reserve Bank of India deputy governor KC Chakrabarty today lauded the efforts of the banking sector in formally including the rural population into the financial mainstream by opening ultra small banking branches and providing credit facilities.

He was speaking after inaugurating the financial inclusion branches of Vijaya Bank and distributing the sanction letters to various beneficiaries and passbooks to the account holders at Adichunchanagiri in Mandya district, about 110 km from here.

Chakrabarty emphasised the need for inculcating the habit of savings among the rural people and called upon them to avail credit facilities from banks to improve their living standards.

As part of its financial inclusion initiatives, Vijaya Bank today opened 10 financial inclusion branches by upgrading the ultra small branches. With this, the bank now has 45 branches in the district. It is covering 1,369 financial inclusion/electronic benefit transfer villages through 245 business correspondents in the district.

The bank is disbursing social security pensions like widow pension, old age pension and physically handicapped pension amounting to Rs 4 crore per month to around 100,000 beneficiaries through business correspondents/smart cards in the villages.

As a part of the outreach programme, Vijaya Bank today rolled out Aam Admi Bima Yojana, a social security micro insurance scheme for the weaker section under a tie-up with LIC of India covering 2,437 beneficiaries.

It also launched Micro Recurring Deposit scheme for the financial inclusion beneficiaries wherein monthly installments are collected through business correspondent of the bank. On the occasion, it sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 87 crore under different schemes like Vijaya Kisan Card, Vijaya Krishi Mitra, general credit card, micro & small enterprises, self-help groups, housing loans, education loans and loans for various agricultural activities.

Chakrabarty handed over the passbooks in respect of basic SB accounts with Rupay Card and Aadhaar seeded SB accounts for LPG distribution.

The bank has also adopted 10 girl children with an assurance to meet their educational expenses subject to certain annual cap up to the level of graduation.