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Rajasthan push for rural banking

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Cooperative Minister Parsadilal Meena has announced that “mini-banks” will be established in all village cooperative societies across the State by September this year to provide banking facilities in the rural areas and encourage small-scale saving activities.

“The mini-banks will especially benefit the labourers engaged in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme by ensuring prompt and hassle-free payment of wages to them,” said Mr. Meena after a high-level meeting at the State Secretariat here.

The mini-banks have already started functioning in 2,673 of the 5,253 village cooperative societies operative across the State. Mr. Meena issued instructions to the State Cooperative Bank to start these banks in the remaining cooperative societies within the next two months.

The Minister said the bank accounts of over 26 lakh NREGS labourers had already been opened across the State following the demand that their remuneration be paid through the cooperative mini-banks instead of the existing network of post-offices. “This demand proves the reliability and authenticity of the cooperative banking system,” he added.

Of the 26.29 lakh bank accounts opened for NREGS labourers, 8 lakh are for women belonging to below poverty line (BPL) families and 8.84 lakh for women from non-BPL families.

Mr. Meena affirmed that mini-banks would also benefit women’s self-help groups, women’s cooperative societies and farmers who would be able to make save money at attractive rates of interest: “Our ultimate objective is to make the village cooperative societies the centre of rural economic activities.”

The Minister pointed out that the Cooperative Department had started disbursing crop loans up to Rs.50,000 to farmers across the State at a uniform interest rate of 7 per cent.

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