Srinagar, Sep 23: A Khidmat centre was inaugurated at Tilwani, a remote village in Islamabad (Anantnag). The village has been ‘adopted’ for financial inclusion by the Reserve Bank of India.
 The centre was inaugurated on Thursday by K K Saraf, Regional Director, RBI in presence of Rajeshwar Rao, Banking Ombudsman and G M Sahibzada, J&K Bank Executive President.
 Others present on the occasion included M S Wani, Vice President J&K Bank and DP Sharma, Officer-in-charge RBI’s local office, DGMs of RBI GC Talukdar, Ramesh and Kiran Sharma. 
 Saraf on the occasion hailed J&K Bank for its “support and cooperation” in taking banking services to the remotest corners of the state.
 “With such an exemplary cooperation from both the J&K Bank and the people of J&K, I believe we can achieve the target of hundred per cent financial inclusion in the state,” he said.
 Sahibzada said, “J&K Bank is committed to take banking facilities to everyone in the state, irrespective of their economic standing, educational status and geographical location.”
 “Our products and technology-enabled services shall follow them wherever they are, both directly, through our network of branches and ATMs and indirectly through the innovative model of massive Khidmat Centre network.”
 Emphasizing on the role of Khidmat Centres towards taking financial inclusion programme further, Sahibzada said, “The centres have the potential to become centres of positive economic change. They are close to rural population and can change the state’s economic landscape”.
 “The latest in the basket of services of Khidmat Services is a small but wonderful Point-of-Transaction (PoT) machine. People living in remote villages like Tailwani will have to just visit the branch once – to open the account. Later, Khidmat Centres, which are easily accessible to them, being one for every six villages, will provide them all the requisite banking facilities like cash deposits, withdrawals and even loans through swiping of smart Cards through these high-tech PoT machines,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST