SAMBALPUR: With the lockdown in place and movement of people restricted, administration is taking steps to provide financial services through Customer Service Points (CSPs) of banks which are being run by SHG members in remote areas of the district.
In this regard, the Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM) has signed an MoU with Utkal Grameen Bank (UGB) and State Bank of India (SBI) to authorise and support trained SHG members to operate a service unit at the panchayat and village levels.
At present, around 12 SHG members are working as business correspondents for the banks in Bamra, Jamankira, Jujumura and Kuchinda blocks.
Official sources at the Collector’s office said, people in rural areas are mostly daily wagers with frequent transactions and it is not possible for them to visit the banks during the lockdown period, hence the CSP is committed to help such people avail services at their nearest points.
The SHG members are playing a vital role in ensuring the disbursement of financial relief packages provided by government, easing access to banking services to people at their doorsteps in the remote areas, adhering to Covid norms.
Project Director, OLM, Puspashree Nayak said, the SHG members operating the CSP have completed the necessary training and have been provided with personal computers or laptops, network routers, bio-metric scanners and other peripherals for managing all the services.
They are providing a wide array of services including, deposits, withdrawal, account opening, insurance and registration for different government schemes. In some cases, these business correspondents are also reaching the doorsteps of the customers in remote areas, strictly adhering to Covid norms.
“We are getting a very good response from the CSP and are in the process of training more SHG members once the lockdown ends and start more CSPs at other blocks,” added Nayak.