We promise a stern action against those who have colluded with BSP

Mohan Singh, General Secretary & Spokesperson, Samajwadi Party in an interview to Tarun Bhardwaj, Asstt. Editor, Todays Economics told that the present present BSP government is a government of Criminals & is a busy looting the state. On the name of inspections, Ms Mayawati is talking a toll on upper cast officers. He was interviewed on a whole range of issues, the excerpts of which are as follows:-

TE: How do you assess the present BSP government ?

Mohan Singh: The present BSP government can be termed as the 'Government of Criminals'. The minister of the BSP government themselves are involved in crime The law & order has totally collapsed, crime against the women is high, corruption is all time high and the rule is autocratic. The present UP government is NADIR. Instead of investing in the welfare of people, it has squandered all the resources of the state in building parks & installing statues.

TE : Your take on the CM's drive to inspect the Development works in the districts?

Mohan Singh: One can not call it an inspection. No one can inspect two to three districts in just two three hours. The CM comes, touches the ground and fly away. The CM and cabinet secretary has in their minds who is to be suspended and who is to be transferred, Infact, she is taking action against only upper caste Bureaucrats, to show people of her community that she is with them and hitting the upper caste people hard, In the entire state, people are being harassed (upper caste) because they belong to a particular community.

TE: In view of the forthcoming elections in UP, what will be your strategy?

Mohan Singh: During the last assembly elections, we lost 20-25 seats with a margin of less than 1000 votes and nearly 60 candidates with less than 5000 votes. Our strategy would be to concentrate on these seats and rope in social engineering to win these seats. We look farward to rope in good candidates. I would like to add that SP would come to the people projecting itself as the only alternative to BSP. We are open, if possible a pre-election alliance with a party having clean image.

TE: What according to you are the main reasons for SP's defeat in previous UP Assembly elections?

Mohan Singh: As already mentioned, during our earlier government in UP, some bad elements entered and their interference in the government increased. People of the state voted against us and punished. At that time, BSP leader Ms. Mayawati was considered as 'IRON LADY' and people expected that she will deal with these kinds of people with iron hand and crush them. But it happened just opposite to what the people voted for. Now, we have got rid of these bad elements and if we are in power, we would focus on good governance and development.

TE: How do you plan to deal with Bureaucrats and politician who are in hand with BSP in looting the state?

Mohan Singh: We promise a stern action against those who have colluded with the government. Political personalities or bureaucrats, whosoever is found guilty will be punished. We have prepared a list of such people and will be brought to the book.

We have a good customer base in rural areas

TE: What according to you are the reasons for vast unbanked population in India?

Unbanked population (Financial Exclusion) is a global phenomenon. It is estimated that over two billion people are currently excluded from access to financial services globally. In most developing countries, a large segment of society particularly low-income people, have very little access to both formal and semi-formal financial services. The situation just about 40% of the population across the Country have Bank accounts.

The nature and form of exclusion and the factors responsible for could explain the phenomenon. Some of the factors are: Gender issues, Age factor, Large identity, Limited literacy-Lack of awareness among the public and banking habit, Place of living, Psychological and cultural barriers, Bank income, Type of occupation, Attractiveness of the product etc; Majority of financial excluded groups are from poor, socially underprivileged, disabled, old as well as children, women, uneducated, minorities and migrant population. The only way to include the leftover segment to banking stream is to reach them at their place of residence or work i. e, by providing doorstep banking through cost effective technology drive model which will provide desired result.

TE: Recently, FM directed bank to provide banking facilities to areas having population more than 2000. It seems that banks are to do only because of their political Masters?

No. Being a business organization, our aim is to bring more and more customers into our fold, thereby not only the untapped potential from the rural areas. This is more important in the context of Indian bank as we have a good customer base in rural areas who are the core customers of the Bank Financial inclusion has opened one more avenue to bring the untapped customer to Bank's fold with less cost by using latest technology.

TE: Do you think it is a huge untapped business opportunity for bank. Then why are the banks slow in talking up financial Inclusion?

The financial Inclusion process which the banks are following now is mainly based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this, various region specific problems are there like availability of telecommunication network, motorable roads etc. Since the ITC enabled smart card based BC with reliability and integrity for all the Banks throughout the country is not an easy job as the reputational risk of the bank is involved in this. For every acts of omission and commission of the BCs, the concerned Bank is responsibility as the BCs are servicing the customers on behalf of the Bank. However, due to active support from Govt. of India and RBI, things are happening very fast. Our Bank has covered 1010 villages in various States through engaging the BCs and various other models like Banking provide banking services centre (BSC) AND Mobile van. We are planning to provide banking services in all the villages with population 2000 and above allocated to our Bank, well ahead the schedule of March, 2012 stipulated by RBI.

TE: In India, you must be aware only 40% of population has Bank account. Do you think this is a big achievement?

Certainly not. However considering the position of the branch nationalization in 1969, many villages are provided with banking services as on date have access to banking services as on date have access to banking services, 58% of farm household and 78%of non-farm households in rural India do not have access to banking depend on informal sources of savings.

Out of 89.3 million farmer household, about 45.9 million (51.4%) don't have access to credit either form credit institutions of form people with life insurance cover is as low as abysmal 0.6% Only 2% people have access ATN cum debit card. There are about 403 million mobile users but 46% of them i.e. 187 million do not have Bank account. If the financial sector were to contribute more fully to inclusive economic growth, it must reach out to the people at lowest atrata  of the society.

TE: What has been your Bank's effort as far as Financial Inclusion is concerned?

Indian bank has started its financial Inclusion effort since 2005, in UT of Puducherry. Nofrills accounts were opened for all GCC were sanctioned of to eligible account holders. The Financial Inclusion Project was extended last to entire Union Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

After experiencing the success in rural Financial inclusion effort, the Bank has set another milestone by Financial Inclusion in Asia's largest slum Dharavi. Dharavi located in the heart of the country's financial capital had no bank branch and is inhabited by vast majority of the population, mainly migrant workers who have no access to any formal financial service. The bank has opened a branch with CBS facility and ATM. The branch also facilities reliable money remittance facility to the migrant labourers. As the number of transactions through ATM is very high, the Bank service. In order to meet the needs of the SHGs, 38 exclusive Microfinance branches have been opened by the Bank in various metro and urban centers. A total of Rs. 602.16 crore covering 31510 SHGs have been disbursed by the Microsate  Branches during 2011-12. Total outstanding advances of these Branches as at the end of March 2011, is Rs.667.57 crore covering 53192 SHGs.