One family, one account campaign gains momentum

With the Centre selecting Dharwad district for implementing the direct transfer of cash to beneficiaries' account under 32 central schemes, the finance ministry, Reserve Bank of India and Nabard have directed banks to ensure one account per family to facilitate direct transfer.

Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank has launched a campaign in this regard and had organised a sensitisation programme for KVGB branch managers.

KVGB chairman C Sambasiva Reddy said, in line with the Centre’s direction, it had been decided to launch a campaign to ensure no family living in the service area of the bank is excluded from the bank. Since the process of direct credit starts from January 1, branch managers have been instructed to complete the process within two to three days.

They have also been instructed to organise grama sabhas and door-to-door campaigns.

Reddy said account opening procedures had been simplified and wherever the public had obtained an Aadhaar number, the same would be obtained at the time of opening of the account and included in the account details. He also appealed to the public to make use of the bank’s campaign.

Meanwhile, KVGB has also started opening ultra small branches according to the directive of the Reserve Bank of India and Syndicate Bank for taking banking operations to the doorstep of the people, especially the rural populace.

Under the bank's financial inclusion plan, Reddy announced the opening of 25 ultra small branches. He said this would be in addition to the 520 branches the bank had across the nine districts of its area of operation .

In widening the financial inclusion programme to the unbanked rural areas, the RBI has allowed banks to establish ultra small branches in rural centres from where business correspondents (BCs) can conduct operations on behalf of the banks.