Banking made easy

People of Gunnagere, a nondescript village in Tumakuru district, do not have to waste time and money travelling to towns for bank transactions anymore. They are thankful to Thimmayya, a resident of the village, who has set up a customer service point, which provides many banking services.

Here individuals can open different types of accounts. The account holders can avail all the services and  make a maximum transaction of Rs 20,000 per day. It also facilitates loan repayments by self-help groups and joint liability groups of farmers, payments of sale proceeds from the milk society and several such essential services.

Thimmayya opened the kiosk with guidance from the Initiatives for Development Foundation and the Vattikuti India Foundation under the Bank Mitra initiative of the Reserve Bank of India. Here a Bank Mitra works as a representative or agent of a bank and is appointed to provide banking services to common people. Thus, Thimmayya is a business correspondent agent of State Bank of India.

Many families of Gunnagere village are dependent on dairy. Payment of milk sale proceeds from the milk cooperative is also happening through the banking service agent, to the advantage of the villagers. “This centre has made our life easier,” says Jagadeesh, secretary of milk producers society, Gunnagere. Thimmegowda, who is from neighbouring village BT Palya, says, “I’m collecting milk from 36 farmers and all of them got their account opened here.”

Women, elderly people and students, who were deprived of banking services earlier, are benefited from this programme. They have opened bank accounts and deposited savings in it. “For the last 6 months, I am operating my account here. Earlier I had to travel to Kunigal to make bank transactions, which meant spending 2-3 hours  travelling and spending about Rs 100. Now it is a matter of just 10 minutes,” explains Ramachandraiah, a villager.