J&K SLBC holds meeting on IT-enabled Financial Inclusion in Jammu

Srinagar, Jan 13: J&K State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) convened a ‘Steering Sub-Committee’ meeting ‘to monitor IT-enabled Financial Inclusion, FLCCs & Credit Plus Activities’ at Regional Office RBI in Jammu.
Regional Director RBI D Sethy co-chaired the meeting with J&K Bank Executive President (SLBC) S S Sehgal.
Among others who attended the meeting were Executive President (T&ISD) J&K Bank Vagesh Chander Sharma, General Manager (FIDD) RBI Ramesh Chand, Special Secretary Finance Department (J&K) M S Sheikh, Deputy Secretary (Revenue J&K) Ghulam Rasool, DGM NABARD R K Srivastava besides representatives of major public sector, private sector banks and RRBs operating in the State.
Highlighting the fresh initiative of RBI for opening of more branches in villages having population more than 5000, the Regional Director, RBI said that the brick-and-mortar branches are an integral component of financial inclusion programme besides increasing the penetration of banks across the state.
The forum was informed that J&K SLBC has identified 104 villages having population more than 5000 in the state, where no branch of scheduled commercial banks is operating. For financial inclusion, the forum decided to allocate these villages to major public and private sector banks operating in the state.
In this regard a detailed roadmap shall be drawn by J&K SLBC shortly, in consultation with RBI, for implementation by the respective banks till 31st March, 2017 and shall be monitored by SLBC on quarterly basis.
Meanwhile, the forum impressed upon the state government to provide necessary support for creating enabling environment for the massive skill development initiatives through RSETI’s and expedite allotment of land for the same. The representative of Revenue Department informed the forum that the matter was under active consideration and assured that the same would be addressed soon.
The forum emphasized the need for undertaking adequate Financial Literacy and Credit Counseling initiatives in the state through FLCCs as well as the rural branches of banks.
All stakeholders were directed to take concerted efforts for implementation of the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Scheme in all districts of the state at the earliest.
Moreover, the banks operating in the State were advised to take adequate measures for sensitizing the people regarding significance of Aadhaar Seeding into their bank accounts.
Utilization of Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) for funding of Solar Powered VSAT connectivity in unbanked Sub-Service Areas for addressing the connectivity problems was also deliberated upon in the meeting.