Mee Seva centres opened

Warangal: Five common service centres (rural Meeseva centres) were launched in Warangal district to serve as banking service providers as part of the Union government's prestigious 'cash transfer scheme'. Minister for Information Technology and Services Ponnala Lakshmaiah has launched the centres on Saturday at Narlapur, Kamalapur, Lingapuram, Agapet, and Fateshpur villages for the first time in Andhra Pradesh. The centres were approved by State Bank of India to act as Bank Correspondent Agents (BCAs). As on date 200 CSCs were activated as SBl-BCAs across India and another 4000 would be activated by April 30 across the nation, the minister said. The centres in coordination with various banks would be increased in the coming days. The government has mapped 229 CSCs and received 11 Kiosk operator codes and activated 5 CSCs in Warangal, he added. The minister told press persons that the CSCs in five other districts Anantapur, Chittoor, East Godavari, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy were also planned to be launched on pilot basis by April 1, 2013. He said that the government was planning to convert 5600 Meeseva centres functioning across the State into common service centres. By the end of 2013 about 6000 centres would be set up. The services would be delivered through Kiosk banking solution and bio Metric authentication of per bank. Due to their location and availability of infrastructure, they were best poised to deliver financial services in rural India and meet their financial inclusion mandates, the minister noted. The minister has distributed authentication certificates to those selected to run CSCs and held a review meeting with officials. District Collector Rahul Bojja, joint collector PS Pradyumna and others were present.