Disbursement of Biometric Enabled Smart Cards for MGNREGA beneficiaries in South Tripura District

KALACHARA COMMUNITY HALL, KALACHARA, February 17, 2011 (Press-News.org) Tripura State Co-Operative Bank Limited (TSCB) launched its RBI guidelines based Banking Correspondent (BC) Model today. The program was inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister for Rural Development, State of Tripura, Sh. Jitendra Choudhury, at Kalachara Gram Panchayat.

The program, which was successfully piloted for over a year at the Dharmanagar Branch of TSCB in North Tripura, is being scaled throughout the State through the disbursement of Biometric enabled smart cards to MGNREGA beneficiaries, starting with Kalachara and Manubazar branches in Satchand block.

Indepay Networks Private Limited has computed the enrollment of all MGNREGA beneficiaries in North and South Tripura Districts through enrollment camps held at each panchayat. Over hundred trained enrollment agents carried out the exercise at the Block/Panchayat level with the help of the respective District Magistrates and Block Development Officers (BDOs) and the necessary State machinery.

According to Hon Minister Shri Jiten Choudhury, "Infrastructure of the Indian banks is rapidly expanding and the visible benefits of ICT in day-to-day banking are well known. Common man is becoming quite used to ATMs and internet banking etc, are gradually finding its acceptance. RBI has been placing a lot of emphasis on financial inclusion covering no-frill accounts, rural bank branches, BC/BF models etc. Further, many pilot projects have been initiated in various States using smart cards for opening & operating bank accounts with biometric identification at people's doorsteps. Here, in Tripura, we are at the forefront of such advances with programs like UID and BC models being deployed on a statewide basis." Indepay have deployed manpower to make you equipped with the technology so that you can encash your money as per your requirement in North and South Tripura district and it will benefit the NREGA beneficiaries.

"Tripura State Co-operative Bank, in furtherance of fulfilling its social responsibility of ensuring faster inclusive growth of weaker and poor sections of the society, wishes to extend banking services to the identified beneficiaries of the MGNREGA through the Business Correspondent like M/s Indepay Networks Pvt. Ltd, by opening of no-frill accounts and by issuance of a biometric enabled smart card in the name of the beneficiaries through which the benefits of MGENREGA are to be passed to them," said Sh Haripada Chakraborty, Hon President, TSCB. Adding to Sh H.P Chakraborty's statement, Sh S. K. Saha, Managing Director, TSCB added that "The bank will also extend financial assistance such as small credit to fulfill other credit needs of the beneficiaries and other banking services, micro insurance, financial products and non-financial services as may be required by the beneficiaries / Magnetic card holders through its wide network of branches / offices in the State through the Bank's duly appointed Banking Correspondent(s) as per the guidelines of the RBI."
Krishan Sujan, Director, Indepay Networks, said that "Indepay wishes to enable and operate along with Tripura State Co-Operative Bank, an extended Rural banking Branch in each village and panchayat in the state where banking services will be extended to each citizen of the state within a few kilometres of their residence as per RBI guidelines for the BC model. This infrastructure will also help to act as points for sourcing Rural Credit and Micro Housing Finance for the citizens of the state in addition to including the unbanked into the Banking system. Indepay has made significant investments in the state and plans to deploy real time, online, UID enabled infrastructure throughout the state and make Tripura a model state for the rest of India to follow. The Indepay ecosystem of BCs will enable non-financial services such as Rail/Air Ticketing, Utilities Bill Payments such as Electricity, Telephone and Municipal Taxes in addition to airtime recharge making the BC model viable and scalable through the state of Tripura as they have done in other states"

Tripura State Co-Operative Bank

Tripura State Cooperative Bank was registered under the Tripura State Cooperative Societies Act, 1358 (Act VI of 1358 T.E) under Certification of Registration No. 183, dated 21 January 1957. The bank has 44 branches & Extension counters all over the state. Tripura State Govt. is the major share holder of the bank and being the Apex Bank of the State, TSCB has its full time commitment to rural economy and has the highest CD Ratio in the State.
ice in Agartala. Indepay have employed close to 100 personnel to take care of State wide operations where we are carrying out enrolment programs for NREGA beneficiaries for the State Co-Operative B
Indepay Networks Private Limited

Contact:
Rachana Puri
Indepay Networks Private Limited
http://www.indepay.com
email: pr@indepay.com