Bhubaneswar: In order to make banking services available in unbanked panchayats of Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday launched the ‘Ama Bank’ scheme on Tuesday.
As part of the scheme, the Chief Minister virtually inaugurated 754 Customer Service Point (CSP) Plus banking outlets in the first phase to foster financial inclusion of rural areas.
Out of 6,798 gram panchayats (GPs) in the state, 4,373 GPs do not have brick and mortar branches. The CSP Plus outlets will be opened in these GPs to cater to people’s banking needs.
The government targets to open CSP Plus outlets in 4,373 panchayats by March, 2024. It has allocated Rs 500 crore for the scheme.
Six PSU banks have come forward to implement the scheme for which they had signed MoU with the government on September 13. Those banks include State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of India (UBI), UCO Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda (BoB).
Chairman of 5T and Nabin Odisha VK Pandian along with officials concerned were present in the event.