Sikkim Mail
Gangtok: November 23, 2011

The Chief Minister’s Rural Universal Financial Inclusion Program (CMRUFIP) which was lunched during the 2010 state Independence Day celebration by the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling at Paljor Stadium has started to operate in the district of East and North.

Central Bank of India (CBI) along with Sikkim State Cooperative Bank (SISCO) was awarded the charge of operating the CMRUFIP in the state. CBI was given the charge for two North and East districts whereas SISCO was for West and South Districts.

Till date the program in south and west have not been touched whereas in east and north a total of 18000 smart cards under the program for east district covering 44 gram panchayat units (GPU) have been distributed and activated. In north, covering 4424 beneficiaries the enrolment card distribution has been completed and the smart cards are ready which will be distributed shortly. Adding more it was informed that under the program nine GPU of east district has been disbursed with a total amount of Rs. 35.73 lakhs through smart card so far. The payment under smart card is based on the release of the fund by the state machineries.

Under CM RUFIP only the local families are facilitated and the smart card is provided to female head of the family. The payments being disbursed through smart card presently is only under MGNREGS.

The technical service providers for the program is being carried out by Integra Micro System Private Limited jointly with another service provider. The technical service provider companies facilitate the server system along with the machines used by the field business correspondents.

CBI is being proposed to carryout the programme for the remaining districts of state too, as because SISCO has not been able to start the programme yet.

Furthermore another financial inclusion program of Government of India (GOI) is also being carried out across nation including Sikkim state under which villages are being covered which do not have banking facilities. Under the financial inclusion program of GOI those villages having a population above 2000 is covered till date, and the dateline to complete the program is by March 2012. After the completion of the same another slab based on population averaging to 2000 to 1000 will be started under Reserve Bank of India.

The financial inclusion program set by GOI is said to cover all those citizens who are not covered under CM RUFIP which will cover the non local beneficiaries working in the state of Sikkim.

The financial inclusion program of GOI and a separate special CMRUFIP for the state of Sikkim are of the objective to literate all the citizens across state, nation on banking sector and its related facilities. The villages, areas which are bank less will be covered through this program along with generating awareness on banking sector to the rural people. Apart from that the program even aims of catering awareness on various facilities given by the banks to the costumers, for encouraging their saving habits. Interestingly it is also learnt that under financial inclusion policy the state government along with central government aims of providing every urban banking facility at the rural level.

Sikkim Mail

 

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