To promote self-reliance in women, their empowerment and Digital India, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched the 'Ek Gram Panchayat Ek Banking Correspondent' scheme under which 58,000 Bank Correspondent Sakhi have been appointed.

"These bank correspondent sakhis will help in promotion of various financial inclusion products along with banking facilities. For this Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been established in every village in the rural areas," a government official said here on Sunday.

He said for providing banking facilities in villages, the state had been divided into 27,628 sub service areas (SSA).

These SSAs have been formed on a population of 4,000 to 6,000 in a radius of five kilometres.

"Besides this, bank mitras are doing Aadhaar based and RuPay card-based transactions and the process of activating inactive bank mitras and appointing new bank mitras is also being carried out," he said.

There are 59,000 gram panchayats in the state and 64,000 bank correspondents were already employed. Now, 58,000 more bank correspondents have been appointed. Now, there are 1.22 lakh bank correspondents who are providing services not only in gram panchayats but also in the neighbouring localities.

With the expansion of the banking network in the state, there is an outlet at 2.38 km distance, improving the service area of the banking outlet in the quarter ended in September 2020. Banking services have expanded further from September last year to February this year.