State looks to set up banking service points at all Panchayat areas

Kolkata: The Bengal government has set a target of setting up a banking service point at all the Panchayat areas across the state, where there is no banking facility yet.

State Finance minister Amit Mitra said on Friday that steps have been taken to set up a financial institution at every Panchayat area so that people belonging to various self-help groups, farmers and others can borrow money.

"A financial unit will be set up on a 400 square feet area at each Panchayat office across the state, where there is no bank branch. Soon, there will be no non-banking villages in the state. The project has already been started by the state Cooperation department. Many such units have already been installed at different places. It is not always possible to set up banks in small villages. We have tried to reach out to the unbanked Panchayat areas. The Chief Minister has instructed to set up financial institution in those areas where there is no bank within a distance of 5 km," Mitra said.

He further added: "Such institutions are being set up at 75 villages initially. I would also urge the Cooperation department to increase the number so that no village is left out."

It may be mentioned here that the Chief Minister had directed the department to take necessary steps to ensure that people in rural parts of the state do not need to travel long distances in order to avail banking services. Following the Chief Minister's instruction, the state Cooperation department took up the step of installing financial institutions.

During his speech at Samabay Mela, the Finance minister also mentioned that the primary agricultural cooperative society has also been extending banking services to the people at all the Customer Service Points (CSPs) in the state. People can avail various facilities including transfer of money through RTGS or NEFT through the CSPs.

"I don't know if this service is available in any other state in the country. This is no doubt a noble idea. Many people are getting benefits at the CSPs. The farmers are getting loans to buy tractors and other equipments from customer hiring centres. As many as 1,000 customer hiring centres have been set up across the state. The farmers can also borrow various equipments from the Farm Machinery Hub against a nominal charge," Mitra stated.

He also said that the Cooperation department has already disbursed Rs 15,883 crore for the Kisan Credit Cards, from which around 23 lakh farmers have benefitted. Around Rs 6,000 crore has been given to various self-help groups in the past five years. The department also provided loans of Rs 36,000 crore to the people through various cooperative banks, Mitra added.