The Hindu : New Delhi News : New banking facility for urban slum dwellers in Bhopal

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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New banking facility for urban slum dwellers in Bhopal

Staff Correspondent

Step to promote IT-enabled financial inclusion package

– Photo: A. M. Faruqui

A New beginning: The beneficiaries showing ‘bank cards’ at the inauguration of the first exclusive banking facility for slum dwellers started by Mahila Chetna Manch with the help of ICICI Bank on Monday.

BHOPAL: Under a new scheme to extend banking facilities in urban slum areas, the first IT-enabled financial inclusion package was rolled out here on Monday through the joint initiative of an NGO, Mahila Chetna Manch, and ICICI Bank. Inaugurating the scheme, covered under the Reserve Bank of India guidelines for the benefit of the urban poor, State Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashok Das said a large section of population in the State was still deprived of banking facilities. The Reserve Bank and the Government have now taken the initiative and asked the banks to bring the urban poor within the banking network. He underlined the need for steps to spread financial literacy so that people are motivated to save and use money more wisely. Mahila Chetna Manch chairperson Nirmala Buch informed the gathering that residents of five Bhopal slum clusters—Mira Nagar, Ishwar Nagar, Indira Nagar, P.C. Nagar and Janata Colony--would benefit from the new banking facility. Her NGO has started the process to open 10,000 bank accounts, and 1,200 of these have already been opened. “Most of these accounts belong to women,” she said, adding that women would be empowered economically by the new facility. ICICI Bank Deputy Chief General Manager Krishna Prasad assured the slum dwellersthat the banking hours would be fixed keeping in view their convenience.

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