Madhya Pradesh unveils scheme for financial inclusion

The Madhya Pradesh government Saturday launched the "Samvridhhi" scheme for sustainable access to development in a bid to ensure financial inclusion of marginalised people of society and provide them with the facilities of direct benefits transfer.

Aruna Sharma, additional chief secretary (rural development), said various state government departments will work with the relevant central ministries and also the banks through State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) and the District Level Bankers Committee (DLBC) to make this project successful.

As per 2011 census, the population of Madhya Pradesh is 72 million, and the population density is 196 people per square km.

More than 75 percent of the state's population resides in villages and their main occupation is agriculture. The low density of population results in one-third of the village residents needing to commute 20 km to 90 km to do financial transactions.

"The challenge was also to draw the road map for smooth mechanisms of devolution of funds in terms of post office and cooperative banks that were not on the platform of core banking," said Sharma.

She added that the state was already devolving 86 percent of its funds through the bank accounts and cash disbursement was negligible.