Hyderabad: Aimed at making the banking experience of farmers and rural population easy and comfortable, Andhra Bank is going to shortly introduce voice-interactive ATMs in the vernacular languages, according to the bank’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. K. Ramakrishnan.
Addressing a gathering of bank’s farming customers at the launch of the ATM-enabled Kisan Credit Card here on Tuesday, he said the bank would take a step forward in taking the technology to farmers.
The ATM-enabled Kisan Credit Cards will facilitate farmers to draw cash at any of the bank’s 390 ATMs and over 1,100 shared ATMs across the country. There would be no service charge levied on these cards issued free of cost with a validity of three years, subject to annual review. The cardholders would also be covered under personal accident insurance scheme, he said.
Having disbursed Rs 13,385 crore of crop loans during 2005-06 surpassing the targets, the bank has set a target of Rs 15,000 crore of disbursals during the current fiscal under Kisan Credit Card mode, covering 75-lakh farmers, Mr Ramakrishnan said. Stating that the bank proposes to focus on the tenant farmers through Rythu Mitra Groups, he urged the Government to form such exclusive groups to enable the bank cover them in a phased manner.
