Bhubaneswar, Nov28 : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday launched a historic and path breaking scheme named “AMA Bank” for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets in all unbanked Gram Panchayats in Odisha.
Launching the scheme, Patnaik said, the CSP Plus model innovated by Odisha will become a model for the rest of the country.
Odisha is the first state in the entire country to conceptualise and implement such a holistic scheme for financial inclusion which is the foundational premise of social and economic progress and empowerment of people.
The Odisha government in collaboration with 6 public sector banks namely SBI, PNB, UBI, UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda has come up with an ambitious and people centric scheme named “Ama Bank” for providing banking services through CSP Plus banking outlets to every unbanked Gram Panchayats.
About 65 percent of gram panchayats in Odisha do not have a brick and mortar bank branch, leading to severe challenges and difficulties in accessing banking services and availability of Direct Benefit Transfer for a majority of people in rural Odisha.
Ama Bank is a low cost brick and mortar micro bank branch which sits between a BC and a small bank branch and will provide all necessary banking services like deposits, advances, remittances, Loans, Aadhar Enabled Payment System, credit linkage to SHGs, coverage under social security schemes.
Besides, Senior citizens, differently abled people and pregnant women will get door step banking services and avail Direct Benefit Transfer in a timely and hassle free manner.
The poor rural people in Odisha will now not have to travel long distances to avail the benefits under several of schemes, particularly Old Age Pension (OAP).
The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner to cover all 4373 unbanked GPs of the State within the current financial year 2023-24.
The Odisha government will be providing rent free banking space for 5 years. It will also bear one-time expenses for Fixed Cost & Recurring expenses for a period of three years.
A provision of Rs. 500 Crore has been made for this scheme. In the first phase on Tuesday, 750 CSP Plus outlets covering all 30 districts were dedicated to the people of Odisha.