Regretting the delay in wage payments by banks to the beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Karnataka government has asked all nationalised banks in the state to set up automated teller machines (ATMs) in all gram panchayats (GPs).
Bank branches are not located at the GP level and beneficiaries ended up spending a day visiting the bank to withdraw cash, said TM Vijay Bhaskar, Principal Secretary, the State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
Karnataka has 5,630 GPs but there are no bank branches in more than 3,000 GPs, he said.