By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 18 Apr: Uttarakhand Minister for Cooperation Dr Dhan Singh Rawat, today, handed over sanction letters to representatives of UKStCB/DCCBs on obtaining AUA/ KUA Membership from Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) at the NABARD Regional Office in IT Park, here. A total grant support of Rs 75 lakhs has been extended under the sanction by NABARD. The membership would ensure the smooth processing of Aadhaar number along with the Aadhaar holder’s personal identity data such as biometric/demographic information, which is submitted to UIDAI (Central Identities Data Repository-CIDR) for matching. The UIDAI verifies the correctness thereof on the basis of the match with the Aadhaar holder’s identity information available with it. The purpose of Authentication is to enable Aadhaar-holders to prove their identity and for service providers to confirm the resident’s identity claim in order to provide services and give access to benefits.
On this occasion, Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat, Arun Pratap Das (Chief General Manager, NABARD), Bhaskar Pant (General Manager, NABARD) and senior officers from NABARD along with Ira Upreti (MD, UKStCB) and GMs/DGMs from DCCBs were also present.
Minister Rawat praised the initiatives taken by NABARD in strengthening the financial and administrative structure of the cooperative sector. He said NABARD has been a trustworthy companion in providing able guidance to UKStCB, DCCBs and PACS. He expressed his desire to convene a ‘Chintan Baithak’ in the near future to improve the cooperative set up in the state and make it more outcome oriented. He also discussed developing 10 model cooperative villages as well as ensuring 100% computerisation of PACS in the next 100 days.
CGM Arun Pratap Dasstressed on the importance of latest technology adoption such as Internet/ Mobile Banking, UPI based payments, etc., in order to attract young customers and stay competitive in the banking industry. He reviewed the current status of PACS computerisation and advised the banks to expedite the same as this would streamline the functioning of PACS and improve business prospects, the benefits of which would be seen at all levels of the 3-tier cooperative structure.
MD Ira Upreti assured that efforts would be made to increase the ground level credit flow in the state through co-operative banks. In addition, the significance of substantially lowering the net NPA of banks was highlighted in order to obtain RBI approval for providing mobile/ internet banking to customers. Issues such as KCC saturation through ‘Kisan Bhagidari Prathmikta Hamari’, Business Diversification of PACS with special focus on MSC, increase in insurance limit for PACS deposits, Governance Issues and Financial Inclusion/ Banking Technology support (provided by NABARD) were also reiterated at the meeting.
