Taking a step to ensure the safety of Business Correspondents (BCs) J&K Bank has announced certain measures to ensure continuity of the services of its 985 Business Correspondents (BCs) for providing essential banking services to its customers in the UT during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “A lump sum of Rs 1500 shall be provided to each BC for purchase of sanitization items and safety equipments like masks, gloves, bodysuits etc. The existing overdraft limit shall be increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to enable transactions using Kiosks conveniently. Besides, a fixed commission of Rs 3000 per month shall be provided for three months, from April 2020 to June 2020 without any linkage to the existing performance matrix will also be provided. This one time facility will be available up to June 2020”, the bank’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Rajesh Kumar Chhibber said.
“The move shall augment the bank’s efforts to help provide respite to the people of the UT particularly those living in the unbanked and underbanked places of the region. Utilizing the services of the vast network of BCs shall also enable the bank to extend the relief measures announced by the government to the pandemic affected people”, he added. Pertinently, as part of the Rs 1.7 lakh crore Gareeb Kalyan Package announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to mitigate the hardships of the poor due to the Coronavirus lockdown, an amount of Rs 500 per month will be released to all women Jan Dhan account holders of J&K UT for the next 3 months through direct transfer. Besides, an overdraft facility of Rs 10,000 will be extended to eligible Jan Dhan Yojna account holders. Remarkably, an overdraft of Rs 2000 in each such account can be extended to the account holders without any documentation. There are around 22 lakh Jan Dhan account holders in the UT of J&K out of which 16.51 lakh accounts are with J&K Bank. The timely facilitation to the BC network shall help ensure implementation of the relief package effectively besides extending doorstep services to the customers and help reduce visits to the business units in the times of social distancing.
