This would perhaps be the first biometric ATM in the state. The upcoming branch, according to bank authorities, has already been approved by Reserve Bank of India and would be made operational by the end of the current fiscal.

PNB had introduced the first biometric ATM at its Chhapraula village branch in Gautam Budh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh in November last. The biometric ATM, in which will have voice guidance and there will be no need to remember personal identification number (PIN), will enable an account-holder to make bank transactions through fingerprint identification technology.

“The biometric ATM coming up at Pakhoke could serve as a model to smoothen the things as far as rush of pensioners is concerned. Depending on its success, the bank will replicate the model in other branches as well,” said PNB Senior Regional Manager Ajit Jaitley.

It was learnt that Pawan Kumar Bansal, Chandigarh MP and Minister of State for Finance, has a key role in the whole development. Bansal hails from Tapa in Barnala district, which is very close to Pakhoke. “I strongly believe that our villages must have the latest technology,” said Bansal, adding, “I had told these people (bank officials) to bring in loop the rural and inaccessible people and provide banking at their doorstep.”

He said the concept of business correspondents going door to door with small handy fingerprint reading gadgets for providing banking services at doorstep, already in use in certain parts of country, was also on anvil in Punjab.

For the six lakh villages of