ROURKELA: A vast rural population of the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district continues to be left out of the financial inclusion network with 96 out of the total 279 gram panchayats (GPs) without access to banking services.
Sources said the majority of the residents of these 96 panchayats depend either on agriculture or work as daily wagers for their livelihood. The remaining 183 GPs, despite having banking services, do not possess adequate branches forcing villagers of far-flung areas to travel miles and spend the entire day at the bank to avail of services.
Lead District Manager, Sundargarh, Don Bosco informed that 96 of the 279 GPs in Sundargarh face difficulties in availing financial services including the financial benefits of different Central and state schemes in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
“The rest 183 GPs have a total of 273 branches of 32 nationalised and private banks, 145 rural post offices and other financial institutions providing bank services along with several banking correspondents and customer selling points (CSPs) meant for any village unit with population over 500,” he added.
Lack of internet access, poor road connectivity and scattered population are to be blamed, Bosco said adding, the district administration is working towards increasing the rural bank branches. “Rural banks play a significant role in the delivery of cooperative and commercial sector agriculture credits but their limited branches impose suffering on farmers seeking loans,” he added.
As many as 17 rural branches of Sundargarh District Central Cooperative Bank Ltd (SDCCBL) disburse cooperative sector agriculture loans through 44 large and multi-purpose cooperative societies.
SDCCB chief executive officer Bhakteswar Mallick said the district’s cooperative sector agriculture credit target for the 2023 kharif and rabi seasons is Rs 1,250 crore. Besides, the commercial sector agriculture credit disbursement target for the Kharif season alone is Rs 240 crore. This speaks volumes of the suffering faced by farmers in getting agriculture loans.
Sources said as per the 2011 census, the district has about 13.55 lakh rural population of which those 96 unbanked GPs conservatively account for about 4.6 lakh population. The scenario is however, expected to change for the better in less than a year. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) targets to introduce 4G services through BSNL by January 2024 as 140 towers are getting installed from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for 140 pockets of Sundargarh still lacking mobile and internet networks.