Overview

• Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi made the appeal at the 27th Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Ranchi, calling on apex banks to establish physical branches in the state’s 4,373 unbanked gram panchayats.
• Odisha has rolled out 2,742 CSP plus banking outlets across all 30 districts and plans to launch another 1,631 outlets to achieve full rural coverage.
• The state government is providing electricity connections, internet links and covering both one-time setup costs and three years of operating expenses for CSP plus outlets.
• Majhi highlighted that 42,035 fixed-point business correspondents face service, cash-handling and network limitations, and that India Post Payments Bank’s 33 branches and 8,929 access points still leave gaps.
• He urged the Centre to direct banks to resolve connectivity issues at the gram panchayat level and increase commission rates to reduce BC attrition and sustain rural banking services.