Orissa government signs MOU with SBI for Electronic benefit transfer for NREGA

September 23, 2009: With an aim to achieve financial inclusion and provide door step banking to the rural people, the Orissa government today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the public sector State Bank of India (SBI) for implementing the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) scheme for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) beneficiaries.

What was the need?
Beneficiaries under NREGA were complaining about the delay in getting the payments. Since Orissa is able to utilise only about Rs 650 crore per annum under NREGA in contrast with Rs 6000 crore utilised by states like Rajasthan.The govt. now expects that , EBT is expected to help in increasing the utilisation of funds under the scheme.

What will SBI do?
SBI will set up ‘banking outposts’ in all Gram Panchayats of the state in the form of ‘Customer Service Points (CSPs). The Zero Mass Foundation (ZMF) has been roped in as a Business Correspondents (BC) to pay wages under NREGA.

Note : Orissa is the first state in the country where all the Gram Panchayats will be connected by SBI through Business Correspondence. SBI has selected ‘A Little World’ (ALW) as one of the technology partner for its project in Orissa. ALW is linked with bank’s technology platform and the data transfer is seamless.