KURNOOL: The Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBK) will provide integrated banking services for farmers from today July 26th. Farmers who are receiving all kinds of services from the agriculture and allied sectors through these RBKs can now also conduct basic banking operations. This will be open to people living in the rural areas as well.

According to RBI regulations, banks are required to be set up in villages with a population of 5,000. This was initiated with an aim to extend banking operations in rural areas and making banking services more accessible to rural people. There are a total of 877 RBK centers in the Kurnool district.

There are 804 business correspondents for various banks. The Lead District Manager (LDM) has made arrangements to provide banking services within RBKs and they have completed mapping of business correspondents with RBKs. Banking transactions will be conducted at RBKs from the 26th of this month. The LDM has already issued guidelines to all banks.

With not many ATMs set up in rural areas, people had to travel far or to the district headquarters to withdraw or deposit cash or conduct other operations. But now with the same facility available at the Rythu Bharosa Centres, will lead to a reduction in cost and save time for the farmers and others.

Withdrawals and deposits up to Rs 20,000 can be done and cash transfers can be made up to Rs.10,000. The working hours of business correspondents will be decided soon. They will also provide online banking services through the swiping machines and tabs provided by the banks.

In tune with Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s vision, the Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKS) were launched in May last year to make them a one-stop solution and support system for the farmers. To extend various services to the farmers, including farm advisories, quality farm inputs, the State government had set up 10,641 Dr YSR Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs), linking them with village secretariats. Apart from this they also help them in purchasing seeds and pesticides and selling their produce to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers.

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Integration of rural cooperative societies with the RBKs is crucial to extend better services to the farmers, chief secretary Dr Adityanath Das said high-level committee (HLC) meeting on rural credit institutions. He directed the officials of Andhra Pradesh Central Cooperative Bank (APCOB) to modernize all the rural branches. Linking of rural credit institutions with the RBKs would play a bigger role in empowering the farmers, he said.