With the District Cooperative Central Bank’s mobile ATM van fast gaining traction among farmers, mostly in underserved areas, the bank is mulling a proposal to roll out another mobile ATM van to extend the ‘cash on wheel’ facility to more farmers, mainly in the tribal areas of the erstwhile Khammam district.
The DCCB launched the mobile ATM van sanctioned by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) under its Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) in June this year. Since then, the van, equipped with an ATM machine on its rear side and a solar panel mounted on its top, has toured both urban and rural areas in the district.
It has dispensed cash to the tune of ₹1.25 crore to RuPay debit card-holders and ₹31.71 lakh to others possessing debit/credit cards of other banks till September-end, DCCB sources said.
Encouraged by the good response from both farmers and others to the concept, the bank authorities have sent a proposal to the NABARD to sanction another mobile ATM van considering the vast area of the bank’s operations spanning the tribal areas.
The bank has a wide network of 47 branches spread in four districts – Khammam, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Mahabubabad and Jayashankar-Bhupalpally – in the State.
Bank branches
The bank also has it’s branches in Kunavaram and Kukunoor mandals, which were part of the undivided Khammam before their merger with A.P. as per the State Reorganisation Act in 2014.
The DCCB is catering to the banking needs of around 1.72 lakh RuPay card-holders and other customers through 17 ATM kiosks situated on the premises of its main branches and 135 micro-ATMs being operated by the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies.
The mobile ATM van is being deployed to the areas frequented by farmers, including Rythu Bazars in urban areas and agricultural fields in villages, keeping in view the requirements of farmers under the overall supervision of DCCB Chairman Muvva Vijay Babu, said Praveen, AGM (IT), DCCB, Khammam.
Apart from helping the farmers withdraw cash in a hassle-free manner, the mobile ATM van is also spreading awareness on a wide range of services being offered by the DCCB and financial literacy among rural masses, he said. The mobile ATM van is proving beneficial to us in saving our time by enabling us withdraw cash right in our village, said Saidulu, a sugarcane farmer from Chennaram village in Nelakondapalli mandal.
The van toured Rajeshwarapuram near our village recently when the local ATM went dry after some local farmers called up the DCCB office and apprised the staff of their cash woes, he recalled.
More number of mobile ATM vans should be pressed into service to cover all the underserved areas, he suggested.