Odisha govt forms panel to implement financial inclusion plan

For effective implementation of a comprehensive financial inclusion plan (Sampoorn Vittiya Samaveshan), a plan of the Union government, to cover the unbanked households in a mission mode the state government has constituted a 19 member committee. Chief Secretary will head the committee while convenor of the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) will be the member secretary. The Director of institutional finance of the state government will be the mission director.

The plan, likely to be launched in August 15 by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to open 20 crore accounts under a mission mode. About 60000 new bank correspondents or bank mitras would be set up under the plan.

The first phase would be from August 15 to November 30 during which 10875 new bank mitras would be appointed  and about five crore new banks to be opened country wide.

The convenor of SLBC will convene a special SLBC meeting on August 5 to apprise the bankers about the nitty-gritty of the implementation of the new scheme, said an official source.

“The committee shall plan review and monitor the financial inclusion plan in the state in coordination with the SLBC and all the stake holders. The committee shall meet at least once in each quarter”, read a finance department notification.

To provide all households in the country with banking services, a time bound programme named Financial Inclusion Mission would be launched on 15 August this year. It would particularly focus on empowering the weaker sections of the society, including women, small and marginal farmers and labourers. Two bank accounts in each household are proposed to be opened which will also be eligible to access credit, Arun Jaitley, Union finance minister had said in his budget speech.Simultaneously, the state government has asked the banks having operations in the state to cover all the 4597 unbanked gram panchayats within a period of five years ending March 31, 2019.