TN gets first ATM for rural job plan workers

For the first time in the country, the Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department has set up the first such ATM exclusively for NREGP beneficiaries in a remote village of Cuddalore district, reports MR Venkatesh.

Just a thumb impression on a touch screen will allow beneficiaries under the Centre’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) in Tamil Nadu to withdraw their week’s wages a biometric Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

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For the first time in the country, the Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department has set up the first such ATM exclusively for NREGP beneficiaries in a remote village of Cuddalore district.

The ATM, developed with technical expertise from IIT-Madras and developed by the State Bank of India, was inaugurated by by MK Stalin, state minister for rural development and local administration at Periyakanganakuppam, 220 km south of Chennai.

Stalin said the ATM was being launched to “make wage payments to the rural poor under the NREGP more transparent”. Apart from this village, three other village panchayats in the district have been chosen for installing such ATMs, he said.

“In phases we will install such ATMs all across the state,” Stalin said.

MR Venkatesh
Chennai, November 23
Just a thumb impression on a touch screen will allow beneficiaries under the Centre’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) in Tamil Nadu to withdraw their week’s wages a biometric Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

For the first time in the country, the Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department has set up the first such ATM exclusively for NREGP beneficiaries in a remote village of Cuddalore district.

The ATM, developed with technical expertise from IIT-Madras and developed by the State Bank of India, was inaugurated by by MK Stalin, state minister for rural development and local administration at Periyakanganakuppam, 220 km south of Chennai.

Stalin said the ATM was being launched to “make wage payments to the rural poor under the NREGP more transparent”. Apart from this village, three other village panchayats in the district have been chosen for installing such ATMs, he said.

“In phases we will install such ATMs all across the state,” Stalin said.