SHILLONG: The Centre’s demonetisation move has hit wedding plans of several people in rural areas.
With no cash readily available, villagers are left with three options – to reduce their expenditure, borrow or take loans from bank.
However, speaking to The Shillong Times, a top SBI official dealing with the rural sector said though the demonetisation has hit wedding plans in villages, SBI will arrange Rs 2.5 lakh for those in trouble.
“This will be done after carefully examining the invitation cards and KYC. The same is with medical treatment in which we make a case to case study. The direction from the DC is made mandatory. The genuineness of the case is seen and moved through the DC if the amount involved is more than Rs 2 lakh,” the official said.
In some rural areas, families who are preparing for weddings have already received the cash, he added.
On the other hand, to ease the availability of money to the people, the official said that locals can swipe their cards and get Rs 2,000 in exchange from petrol pumps using the POS machines of SBI or mini ATMs. The official added that such facilities are available at petrol pumps in Jorabat and Byrnihat.
40 per cent without bank accounts in rural areas
40 per cent of the rural population is still without bank accounts, according to SBI assessment.
However, with the ongoing scenario of demonetisation ushering in a new change, banking system in rural areas is awakened even as a call for urgent financial literacy comes in place to make rural folks aware of banking facilities.
The official said rural people are making a beeline to banks that otherwise wear a deserted look. The coverage of SBI in rural areas is 60%.
“The rural people question the need for having a bank account. We will highlight some benefits of banking facilities to them. We will conduct customer literacy camps or financial literacy camps where we inform the people about the need to have bank accounts for security of their future. Previously people were not exposed to banks, now they need financial literacy,” the official said.
The official informed that awareness programmes are held to sensitise people about banking facilities and its benefits in rural areas, narrating instances of how they journey to remote villages to conduct financial literacy camps.
“It is not about villages being left unbanked but some of the villages are sparsely populated, wherein one village has 20-30 households, which is a deterrent to open a bank branch. Here the role of CSPs is needed,” he added.
In remote villages of the State, customer service providers (CSPs) are engaged by banks to serve as a link between the bank and the people in the village.
“We need more CSPs in villages without banks. The CSPs are engaged on a commission basis. Usually CSPs are literate people from villages,” an SBI official said.
